Back From the Dead (or at least Injury)!!!

Wow! Has it really been since January that I left a blog post? UGH! How embarrassing!

Well, the long story is I had a terrible back injury about the time we finished the floor for the work out room and I am just now gettting to the point where I don't have to be heavily medicated and sitting on a special seat cushion. MRI scans showed that I had a herniated disc which was pushing on the sciatic nerve which is why I had such severe pain in my right buttock and down my right leg! Listen folks, I could barely sit, stand, walk, sleep....anything! The herniated disc was the same one I injured back in 2006 which I eventually had surgery to fix.

After the MRI results I immediately went under the care of an Interventional Pain Management Specialist (that is a mouth full!) She prescribed me physical therapy and treated me with a couple of intense epidural injections (one I think was called a caudal injection). Both of these were in my lower back, the caudal one was sort of upwards from below my waistline. OUCH! Those, tons of PT visists, and 3 different pain meds kept me barely mobile and barely alert for the whole spring semester at work. See the image above from my MRI Scan! :)

It was probably the worst semester of school I've had in my 11 years of teaching college! I had two speech classes, a full set of theatre courses and we (years in advance) deciced to mount a huge theatre production called Angels in America (which is actually two plays) which we performed for two weekends parts one and two on alternating nights. Oh Man was it rough! I'll just say my time/student management skills were not at their best and work with my colleague was less than fun! The show ran just fine, we had everything we needed, it just wasnt exactly what I had dreamed!

Eventually I began to feel a little better and by late June began asking to be weaned off of some of the meds. I taught summer school in June (night class) and it too was not my best work (I got so darn sleepy around classtime and just wasnt on my A game!) BUT once the meds started leaving my system I began to feel a lot better.

In July, I headed out on an 8 hour drive to DeKalb, IL to be part of my 14th year of NIU Theatre Arts Camp. I took my reduced regimine of meds and didnt work as physically hard as years past and survived just fine! I even danced a little at the Toga Dance party!

This picture is of me in my famous "Mischievous Kittens Toga" with my friend Melanie (Head Costume Designer at NIU and the camp director!)

Upon my return from camp I had another doc visit and due to my great success at camp, we weaned me off of drug number two of three! The last of them was a 25 microgram pain patch changed out every 3 days (normally given to people age 50 and up). AND now, for the last 2 weeks I've been on half of that dose 12.5 micrograms.

Next week I will have another followup to see what my next step is! I'm a little nervous because sometimes I get the pain back, but most of the time I feel pretty good with the patch.

Tune in next time to find out if Nathan is drug free yet!

A course in Applied Appliance Purchasing (no college credit available)

So, these days when you sell a house, it is appealing to buyers to have all of the appliances intact with the house. This means washer and dryer, fridge, stove and dishwasher. When we put the city house on the market we were ok with all of that since the stove didnt match the fridge and the fridge was not as functional as we thought it would be when Julianne bought it 4 years ago. The washer and dryer were freebies from a friend of Juliannes. So, it was cool to leave it all with hopes of upgrading to new/efficient models of everything! This picture shows our old kitchen.

So when we made an offer on the country house we learned that they planned to leave the black front dishwasher (that is a piece of junk!) and a really nice glass top electric stove with stainless steel front (I really hate cooking on the glass top! Ugh!) They were not planning to leave the washer and dryer (which ironically were older than the ones we had at the old house) and offered to sell their 15+year old small fridge to us for $100! We said "no thanks" to the fridge offer and took a trip downtown to the Sears Outlet on front street (not far from the Re-Store!) to look at what they had to offer. Several years ago I bought my KitchenAid Gas Range at the scratch-n-dent store and loved it, When it was time for Julianne to get her Fridge 4 years ago we went there to see what they had on the floor. If you get the service contract, you really can't go wrong! If it breaks or is broken at delivery, they fix it!

So we knew we needed a washer and dryer and a fridge and so we started by dreaming big! What did we want out of these new appliances? Well, we knew we wanted to upgrade to front loader washer and dryer! We also wanted to get a new fridge...stainless steel WITHOUT water and ice in the door (we just never used that function...and the new kitchen has a special filtered water tap at the sink). So we looked at what they had in the store and made some notes. Then we went to Lowe's and Home Depot and then took a longer trip out to Nebraska Furniture Mart (in Kansas City, Kansas...not Nebraska). We had purchased Julianne's dishwasher there years ago and knew they had a big selection of appliances.

So, after we collected all of this data, we determined to do our price comparisons from all of the different stores. A week later we went back to the Sears outlet and looked at the selection and it must have been fate or all of the stars were alligned...the washer we had been looking at at Lowe's was there AND 40% off! The matching dryer was also on sale (actually, it was the upgraded model and was only $5 more than the matching model dryer!) So we quickly put our name on them...you basically have to lick them to claim them because things move so quickly at that store. After reading and talking about washers and dryers we decided to get the Bosch brand pair of front loaders. They had been rated as the most efficient and eco-friendly washer and dryer available on the market today. The washer uses very little water and the dryer will shut off when the clothes are dry...even if there is still time on the timer. Since it was an outlet store, part of the deal was there was some damage to the machines. The clear front window on the washer has a scratch in it and the dryer has a little dent on one side (in a place we'll never see it!)


We decided to go ahead and look at the fridges again at Sears (eventhough we had not seen the model we wanted the last time). We decided against getting a side by side fridge and were looking mostly at what is called a Trio model. That means the freezer is a drawer at the bottom (my aunt Carolyn had the grandfather model of this fridge in Avacado Green when I was a kid! It was so cool to pull out that drawer on her fridge! I think she always had freezer pops in there! YUM!) Then there are two doors at the upper part that open out to reveal the full shelf and drawer storage areas! It seems more efficient this way. THe side by side freezer was never big enough or the storage was divided in weird ways. It was tough finding a model that didnt have the ice/water in the door for the price point we were wanting to pay. We had narrowed down to Kenmore Elite or GE Profile and finally ended up with the Kenmore...(the main difference was the freezer storage...the Kenmore seemed sturdier and had a better layout.) There was a black scratch mark on one of the moveable shelves on the inside and a scratch on the side near the bottom/back of the unit. We mentioned the shelf damage and the sales lady said they would switch that out with a new one before they delivered it (no charge)! Here is a picture on delivery day...we had not unpacked anything yet! The house was a wreck! It didnt take long to fill it up!





So, we were also fortunate to get special financing deal: 12 months with no payments and no interest and on top of all other discounts, 10% more off the lowest priced appliance for buying more than two pieces AND we ended up negotiating in free delivery and the dryer cord and some stainless steel polish (Julianne is good at those kinds of negotiations...not afraid to ask for the moon!) We also went for the 3 year service plans (they'll come out and do a full check up and cleaning of all appliances once a year...and if anything goes wrong...even human error...they fix it!) I think it was worth the extra $$ to have that peace of mind.

Delivery was a little touch and go for a while. We had it scheduled to all come on the 22nd of Dec. Well, we werent sure closing for the new house would happen by then, so we called to see about moving the delivery date to Wednesday the 23. Long story short (I keep saying that) the whole thing got messed up and the computer system at Sears won't let you undo things easily. So we never really knew when things would be coming! Finally we got word that the washer and dryer were coming on the 23 and the fridge would come the following week...We didnt like the sound of that since we had food in coolers by the back door (where it was cold). We finally got it worked out that the fridge would come Christmas Eve. But, it was all delivered at the same time on Wednesday anyway. So much stress and time on the phone and it all worked out just fine!


We bought a fridge that was bigger than the one that had been in the house before...so the tight little area that was dedicated to the fridge was not big enough. No matter...I had plans for that spot.

I had an old wooden shelf unit that I found on the side of the road in our old neighborhood. I painted it white and we hung it in the place where the little fridge had been. It's a temporary solution to the problem. I have bigger plans for the kitchen once we raise some funds for redoing it! (wait for the kitchen blog posting to be written up one day in the future!) The fridge would have to go on the west wall where it was obvious a fridge had been before since the outlet is half way up the wall AND the copper water line was coiled up on the floor. Once it was delivered, it was obvious to me what a mammoth of a machine we had purchased! The thing is nearly 3' square...sticking out from the wall three feet and three feet wide! It is massive! AND WONDERFUL!

The washer and dryer fit in the laundry room as planned (had to have Sears come back out to hook up the hose/vent again...it came undone) I could have fixed it, but that is what a service contract is for...right? And we had to have them come out twice to work on the fridge. The door seal on the upper doors didnt close right...you had to close the left side first when it shouldnt matter...AND a separate call to fix the freezer drawer...the installers just didnt tighten some screws enough so it wasnt sealing either...frost appeared! It is all working and functioning just fine now and we are really enjoying our new appliances! Now to budget for that dual fuel Wolf Range with the pretty red knobs and the bright blue enamel interior!

Like I mentioned before...I have plans for the kitchen which involve moving a lot of things around... moving the door and adding some cabinets/counter space, etc. So look out for that blog posting in the near future (maybe summer if we're lucky!)

Our Gym Finally Made it Home!

About a year ago I got free tickets to the Kansas City Auto Show at the convention center downtown. Being a 9+ year Subaru owner, I guess I get some perks. They wanted me to come see the latest model of the Forrester. So, rather than ask me to come to the dealership, they gave me two tickets to the show! Julianne was excited about going to the show...I had never been to one, so we went! It was a cold gray day last winter so it was nice to get to spend it indoors.

What does any of this have to do with a home gym you ask? Well, while walking around the car displays we ran across a little Blue Cross Blue Sheild "wellness" booth. They wanted passers by to sign up for wellness information and a chance to win a pair of shoes or the grand prize of a $1000 gift certificate to a store called Fitness Showcase. We thought, what the heck...they already have our info anyway since we use BCBS for our insurance. So I asked them if we won the shoes if we would have to take the demo shoes from the table or if we could get ones that were the right size?! :) They didnt get my joke. (Heck, I don't get my joke!)

About a week later I got a phone call at my office announcing that I had won the grand prize! I thought Julianne had gotten a friend to call as a joke. I didnt remember exactly what the prize was. Along with the prize I was getting my photo taken with some BCBS big wigs at their corporate gym. The photo has been flashing on their website since last March! (I made sure to dress up in my most "artsy" blazer and tie...knowing full well I wouldnt fit their standard profile!)

Once I got the certificate we planned a trip down to Hwy 435 and State Line Rd (quite a hike from the Northeast where we lived). We met with the salesman who had arranged the prize and he showed us the models of home gyms we could afford with our gift certificate. Let's just say they all cost more than $1000 and the things that were less just didnt look as good as the others. We decided that we would think about the options (knowing that we would probably pay a little more and get a good basic system with some bells and whistles). When we lived in the old house in the city, there really wasnt a place to put a 400lb home gym. Even the basement didnt seem like a good place. Upstairs worried us as the living room ceiling was already cracked. So, we decided to put it all on hold until we got the basement cleaned out or decided to move. Well, we moved!

When we first looked at 1300 County Road B there was one room that we just couldnt quite figure out what to do with. We called it the "dog room" because it was clear that when the previous owners lived here they kept their big dog caged in there (the cage was there when we first looked, but there was also a very hairy papasan chair in there too!) The room is about 9' x 10'. This picture was from the day we looked at the house...not our stuff in the room...(we have better taste! Although they left the papasan...fur and all!)
The floor of the room was black floor tile with pink flecks...the really old kind that you see in church basements or grandma's kitchen floor (probably 1940's vintage and more likely than not...full of asbestos!) We discovered early on that all of the floors in the old part of the house have this flooring under the carpet (ugh...no pretty hardwoods here!) So, what do we do with the "dog room?" We considered moving the laundry room there. I thought we could move the basement stairs back there and make the dining room bigger. We considered making it a library or an office (but it has no window to the outside...the window looks into the laundry/furnace room on the new side of the house!) One day it hit me...it could be the home gym! Finally we have a room with a solid floor (it is concrete under that tile) and it is just big enough to use for that purpose! So we made some plans. Actually, there is a bigger renovation involved that I'll blog about another day that will be taking the weird closet out of the dining room and giving that space back to the Gym room (but that will come later!).

Last week we went to Fitness Showcase and talked with our salesman and ended up paying for the upgrade and scheduled a delivery for the same week! As we drove away we got to thinking...If they set up that 400lb piece of equipment, we'll never replace that flooring! SO, thus the long story to get to the renovation project! We decided to put down flooring in the room BEFORE the system was delivered! We only had 2 days (of course the busy last few days before classes started up again and Julianne had 3 projects going for Keen Bee!) We went to Costco in Midtown KC to look at some click together wood/bamboo flooring we had seen. Then we went next door to Home Depot to compare prices. We ended up getting some of the wood flooring at Costco that looks really nice. So, we came home and step one (after sweeping up years of black dog hair) I sealed the asbestos tile with Kilz paint. (notice the window...that is the one to the laundy room- weird!)

The next day we laid down the moisture barrier (not that we really needed it...the floor is not on the basement level) and I measured for the first cut. The room is not entirely square (few rooms really are...especially in older homes). As I laid out the first few boards my suspicions were confirmed that I needed to rip the first set of boards to the curvature of the wall. Fortunately I had a square grid of floor tiles to base my first cuts from. The exterior wall had a significant slope... almost an entire inch difference from one corner to the other. Once I got that cut (so convenient having a table saw 1 mile away at the college!) it was easy to just click the pieces together. When you get to the end of a row, you cut a board to fit the remaining gap, then the scrap from that piece begins the next row. It is really a neat process. It made me think about the awesome quartersawn oak floors at the old house...I miss all that wood!!!

It actuall was a two night process. I got tired (knees got tired) the first night, then Julianne jumped in and helped me finish the next night. She was really good at the clicking part. I had less patience and wanted to bang them together with the "tapping block."

I finished up the night before delivery of the gym and left the last row unfinished so that when I knock out the closet, we can pick up on flooring installation where we left off. (I want to do that sooner than later, but we are both so busy right now, it will just have to wait!) Eventually, we'll repaint, add some nice thick base board and trim around the window. When we make the room bigger, I plan to put in a salvaged door (15 lite glass door) I found when we lived in the Northeast. I also want to mount a tv to the wall so we can watch our "Sweatin' to the Oldies" VHS tapes. (that last part is a lie!)

So the gym was delivered! It looks really cool. It even came with a poster. We just happened to have a poster frame that fit it exactly (it was left in the guest room when we moved in!)

So, now we just have to get motivated to get in there and use the thing...I'll be buff by Christmas! 6 pack, here I come! See? I'm already on my way!

Even Bees Need Creative Spaces to Work!

My wife Julianne is known to the world as the Keen Bee! She is keen (which means clever, cool, hip, with it...and a bunch of other descriptive words) and she is creative! A couple of years ago she followed her dream to quit her cubicle job as a drone designer at the University of Missouri Kansas City Medical School and start her own business. She carefully researched names and logos and ultimately decided on Keen Bee Creative. What does a Keen Bee do? Well, all things creative is an easy answer. She got her start by doing a variety of illustration and graphic design work, but more recently she has branched out into making dimensional (tactile) pieces of art (some you can wear) and has even exhibited some of her work in consignment shops in Kansas city.

(Look out for the shameless plug here...) This weekend she is making her debut as part owner of Eclectics Gallery in the Brookside/Waldo area of Kansas City, MO! They are kicking off the Valentine season with a show of new works by several artists from the KC area...Julianne is contributing some awesome recycled felted wool flower brooch/hair clips, button flower vases and some hilarious "Anti-Valentine's Day" cards (I helped with some of these!)


But where does the Keen Bee get creative? She does it in her new "Design Hive" studio we've nearly completed at our house! The Keen Bee is still busy organizing where all of her supplies and equipment live at the hive, but I wanted to share a few photos of the transformation from drab tan office to colorful and eclectic workspace!
This photo is of the "home office" room when we looked at the house back in December. The furnishings are what the previous owner left to stage the room for house showings. The room was very functional. The Pottery Barn tan color and white trim was functional, but it didn't say much about Keen Bee. So we cleared out all of the stuff we had crammed in there and began taping off the trim and floor to prep for a creative upgrade.

We began by going to Lowe's and looking at paint swatches (which is very overwhelming...too many to choose from AND never the exact shade you want!) We had seen an image of a 4 color scheme that included a chair rail. We found some cool old chair rail at the Re-Store (Habitat For Humanity's warehouse store on Front Street in Kansas City!) I think we got all of the chair rail for about $5! We also picked up an old desk that had been built into someone's kitchen in the 1980's. At our last house I had adapted part of an old kitchen desk into a functioning desk piece for Julianne's studio...we re-re-purposed it at the new studio as a sewing station!

So...mustard yellow on the upper half of the wall, a rust orange/brown on the lower separated by chair rail and window/door trim (and baseboard) painted an olive green. The doors, window shashes, and desk drawers were painted an orange color. Sounds a little garish you say? Well, we were a little worried too, until we got it all painted on! It is so cool and really feels more like Keen Bee Creative Design Hive than the last studio ever did!

So here we are cutting in the colors... Then we rolled on the colors... Then painted the trim and

furniture! That is our friend Elizabeth who volunteered to help us the first day we worked on the painting. She was great help (and secretly LOVES painting and can't wait till she can have her own walls to paint whatever color she wants!)
Here is the Keen Bee herself working on touching up a salvaged hexagon end table.

We set up the desk, bought some MDF cut to fit the top (Julianne sealed it with a clear eurethane) and decided where to put the rest of the furniture. We brought in a shelf unit that used to be used up at the college in the theater lounge. We set it on its side and Julianne has utilized the cubbies as storage with bins. We will eventually add an MDF top which will expand the work surface a bit. There is also a dedicated sewing station on one side of the room. We will hang a section of old kitchen cabinets that we found at the Restore above the table where Julianne will store sewing supplies and notions. We also bought anold brass chandalier that Julianne painted red with spray paint. That will eventually hang above a seating area we will build this summer.

So, for now, though, here are some pictures of the studio and the Keen Bee at work. She's making those cards for her opening this weekend! So, come on out and see the show!

New Year! New House! New Blog!

So, I hate being unoriginal. What I mean to say is that I hate copying from friends ideas, but I'm going to do just that. My friends Jeff and Derek have a blog called "Half a House" where they have described various home improvement projects as well as told about the interesting natural (and unnatural) disasters they've encountered while renovating their home. My friend Tracy has a blog too that describes her adventures of living between two houses called "House in the Country, House in Town." SO, I want to do something similar as a way to document our transition to living in the country and changes and improvements we are making.

On the weekend of December 21, 2008 (with a 26' long moving truck and lots of help from supportive friends), Julianne and I moved out of our charming Tudor style house in Kansas City to 1300 County Road B just northeast of Liberty, Missouri (just 1 mile from William Jewell College, where I work!) In a nutshell, we had put our City house on the market in September of the same year and had an offer in December and the closing was December 21!

We had been looking at houses in the historic district of Liberty (just off the quaint town square). We had narrowed our selection to one house that seemed to have it all (and a few problems to work out, but we like a challenge). It had location, historic charm, enough rooms, and room to expand. The problem was, the day we got the offer on our city house, the Liberty house had been taken off the market and they were not accepting any offers! So it was back to the drawing board. We scheduled a full day of house hunting with our "Mean Realtor" (she likes that name) Kathy (kathyandkellisoldit.com) who willingly took us on a 6 hour adventure in house looking from the wilds of South liberty suburban McMansionville to Graceland (a house that had to have been remodeled after the King's estate!)

One house in particular was saved for last and that was 1300 County Road B... in the country... with 3 acres of land... 5+bedrooms... and new wrap around deck! Um...Kathy, can we afford this? She confirmed that the details on the MLS sheet were correct. We pulled into the circle drive, through the stone and wood gate and thought..."could this be the one?"

It turned out to be the one! We made an offer and then counter offer and then another counter offer and went through over a 2 weeks of negotiations (foundation repairs, septic tank inspections (yummy!) Radon mitigation, riding lawn mower inclusion, etc.) and finally were scheduled to close on the sale of the city house and also the purchase of the country house on Dec. 21. The paperwork for our VA loan (Julianne qualified due to her 8 years of service) was not ready on the 21st, so we postponed until the 22. In the meantime we had to be out of our old house by noon on the 21st. We didnt find out until 2:30 when we were in our closing that the seller was going to allow us to move in early! So, we were able to spend our first night in the new house on the 21st. I had moved the moving truck to the new house the night before (we didnt trust leaving a truck with all of our belongings on the street in our old neighborhood!) Let's jus say, after a long and very cold day of loading the truck, the drive to Liberty was a little scary. But the fun doesnt stop there! I pulled into the circle drive and hit the powerline with the truck, ripping it down from the pole at the street...had to call the power company to come re-hook it at 10:30 on the negative 4 degree night!

We had friends (and some of my awesome students) help us unload the truck Tuesday! It didnt take as long to unload as it did to load! Christmas was a world full of boxes...trying to find my socks...trying to find pieces to Julianne's computer...we at least knew where the coffee pot was; I made sure of that! Long (yes I know I said..in a nutshell) story short...we "squatted" at the house for over two weeks not signing closing paperwork until January 6thm 2009! If the seller had not allowed us to move in, we would have been homeless for over two weeks and possibly would have lost the deal! It was pretty scary for a couple of weeks! We paid the seller $25 a day to live there until we got it official!

Well. Now that you know the context of our story, the next blog entry will get to the fun part...the redecorating and renovating! We have been at the new place about 4 weeks and have accomplished so much already! So stay tuned! We have lots of work to do and will surely take lots of pictures!!!

A new year! A new house! A new blog!

Hump Day!

It is an ordinary Wednesday in May. The first Wednesday in May to be exact. Some people call Wednesday Hump Day. But, now that school is out for summer, I have no hump day...everyday is a Friday to me for the next couple of months!

So, Blog Schmog! Do I really have anything worth saying here? Is it this difficult for everyone who writes a blog? Does anyone give a @&*% about what I have to say? Well here goes!

OMG! Is there spellcheck? There better be spellcheck. I have two friends (that I know of) that are on Blogger.com. I've been frequenting their blogs for the last couple of months. I love reading about their lives.

One of them is a writer by trade, so this must come easy to her. She always has something clever to say. Her name is Tracy, and without her permission, I thus post, for the world to see, her blog's address: http://lafloreani.blogspot.com/

The other belongs to my friends Jeff and Derek who just bought what they call "Half a House" and they write mainly about their adventures in home remodelling. It is quite an adventure and always inspiring! It's like extreme makeover home edition, only there are just two guys doing all the work! They are re-doing the entire house top to bottom. They are amazing. Catch up with them here: http://halfahouse.blogspot.com/

So, what will my theme be? What do I have to say to the world? Stay tuned while I think....