Home improvement and cookies

We decided to give Carly's old room a makeover. We got leftover paint from Cheri a year ago, so we decided to use the free labor (Adam) and get it done. The ceiling needs repainted (white) so all the light, smoke alarm, and fire sprinkler fixtures needed to be loosened. The rest of the room will be painted a dark tan color. And a few places in the whole room needed plaster repair. And then while I was at it with the plaster, I took out some old taping paper that was buckling in the window sill and down one whole wall corner.

We replaced the living room and stairs carpet a few months ago. As usual, the carpet places give you more carpet than you need, (and this was AFTER we had subtracted a few yards off the original estimate) so we had enough left over to do the landing upstairs also. But not enough to go all the way down the hall. I finally decided I couldn't live with it that way anymore and ordered more carpet. I saved $75 and picked it up myself down in Cypress. (30 min. away) I was told it would be 7 ft long, but instead, it was 12. I wasn't prepared with bungie cords to tie down the back, but luckily there was that strong plastic tie stuff lying on the ground. I picked it up and was thinking about how to tie down the door to the 3 feet of carpet sticking out the back when a nice young man (non-English speaker) came over and proceeded to do it for me. {And I didn't even have the presence of mind to tip him!} So I drove home on the 405 with my car beeping at me the whole way because the door was ajar. Oh well, at least it wasn't raining. David is laying the new carpet as I type. And yes, there is quite a bit left over.

So while I'm waiting for the plaster to dry, I made cookies using Cadbury mini eggs. I know, shocking -- they actually lasted long enough to make it into dough. You can use any recipe for chocolate chip cookies, but I used The Pioneer Woman's recipe for malted milk chocolate chip cookies and then used the mini eggs instead of the chocolate chips. (I also add another cup of flour to the recipe so they're not so flat.) If you try this yourself, put the candy in a ziploc bag and then hit the eggs with a rolling pin to at least "cut" them in half.

So then I told David that I want to paint a wall or two in our bedroom. I'd like to have it be marble-y looking, but that may be more ambitious than I really want to take the time for. Besides, I'm all about instant gratification. Maybe when Carly's room is all said and done I will be "done" with house projects for a while anyway. Oh wait -- I forgot that we want to take out a window in our bathroom and replace it with a door that goes outside to a spiral wrought-iron staircase. What was I thinking that we'd be "done?"