Catching up on other improvements

I don't really have a picture of it, but we had an alarm system installed the day after we moved in to warn us against burglaries and fires. It's not that we live in a bad neighborhood at all. In fact, we love the neighborhood. However, it's just for the piece of mind. Everywhere we lived in the city wasn't really "ours". We could always rely on other neighbors to call the fire department, because it was their apartment or condo building too. But, now that we live in a "detached single-family home" (I spent a lot of time on real-estate sites looking for this place), we can't rely on others to watch out for us... well, unless we pay them an installation and monthly fee. The alarm install ended up taking most of a day, and cost us more than we thought, but it helps us sleep easier at night.

DirecTV came out the same day I was ripping up the carpet. I was hoping that the installer wouldn't have to run 2 lines into the house (so we can watch one channel while TIVOing another), but the guy didn't know about SWM8 technology. I had read about it a few months earlier, and we were using it in our condo. But, I hadn't done my homework before he came out, so I couldn't convince him that it was possible to have a dual-tuner and still only run one line into the house. So now we have two cables running thru our siding and into our fireplace. I know, it sounds weird, and it is one of the few things we think is odd about the house. At least I can watch the Lions every weekend, thanks to the Sunday ticket. I don't know why I torture myself so.

We learned that one of the prior owners had a swingset in the back yard, which explains the odd, square-shaped, flat area back there. Most of it is a smoothly graded hill, kindof like a crowned football field, but not where that swingset was. I spent a few hours one weekend filling it in with topsoil. I can't put too much on for fear of killing the grass. So, I put on just enough so that the grass can peek out above the soil. I'll let it grow out again before adding more. I read about that technique online. It takes a bit longer that the option that involves a sod-cutter, but I figured we have time. It really doesn't look that bad, and it only bugs me slightly. So, I didn't want to go all out on this project.

Here's a picture of the bridal staircase in our foyer. A few weeks ago, I ripped the runner off of it. We knew we didn't like the carpet that was currently on it and that it had to be done. Let me tell you, ripping up carpet from a room is about 20 times easier than it is ripping it off of a staircase... at least an oak one. You see those 16 steps? Each one had about 30 carpet staples either holding the carpet or padding down. I later figured out that you can buy a mini-crowbar to make it easier, but I used pliers to rip each one out. It took me about 3 hours to finish, and about 3 days for the pain in my hands to subside. I keep telling myself that it probably helped my golf grip, but I can picture myself having arthritis in about 10 years thanks to it. Carrying the carpet wasn't as hard as the large rolls, but there were a lot of staples that stayed in the carpet. One punctured the middle of my right palm. With all the improvement projects we have planned, I should probably get a tetanus shot.

We had planned on starting things like painting and hardwood floors, but we quickly realized that we are a bit overwhelmed when it comes to picking that sort of thing out. So, we decided to bite the bullet and get a home decorator. We're working with Jamie at JS Interiors. She's been great so far, and we've made a lot of progress picking out family room furnishings. Hopefully we'll have paint and hardwood colors picked out soon so I can start on those projects.