Never On Sunday

The Payson Roundup has started a new daily deals offer (think mini-Groupon) for the Payson area.  Their first offer was for Cardo's, an Italian restaurant we have been to before (and, more importantly, liked) so we bought one.  After arriving in town and unpacking, we decided to use our coupon; however, the place was packed.  We aren't sure if that was the normal Friday night crowd or if every person living in the town of Payson (and all surrounding areas) bought the same deal, but all the tables were full.  The waitress shooed us into the standing room only bar promising a table would be available soon so we settled in to wait.  We listened to the band, a group of three older guys with two guitars and an electric violin, play Devil Went Down to Georgia.  They did a fairly good job, but after the song was over it was still too crowded with no indication it would get better EVER so we decided to go to Pizza Hut instead - might not have the ambience, but lots and lots and lots of available tables and the pizza is actually pretty good.

Saturday started with a trip into town for returns to Home Depot and Walmart (seems to be something we do a lot of because someone, we won't name any names, can't seem to make up their mind) and a new 5 gallon can of primer from the paint store.  We returned the formerly live Christmas tree we got last year that died not too long after we planted it. If you didn't already know it, Home Depot has a wonderful return policy on plants.  You can return them up to one year, no questions asked.  The clerk was a bit hostile, demanding a receipt (which of course my packrat wife had), but we got a store credit which we plan to use for our live Christmas tree this year.  If it dies, we'll just return it and get a new one next year.  If our luck holds, we may never pay for a Christmas tree again.  While we were in town we stopped at the consignment craft store that just opened in the Swiss Village.  We had met the owner at the Pine/Strawberry craft fair back in September and she has a business where she makes pictures using people's names.  We decided to order one for our nephew for a Christmas gift and, when we contacted her, we learned that she was opening this new shop.  It is really small, but packs in some pretty cute goodies so check it out if you're ever up that way.

After spending all morning running around town, I did not feel like painting in the afternoon.  I did manage to be industrious enough to take a look at the back door because, whenever it rains, I've noticed  some water spots on the kitchen floor on both sides of the door frame.  When we replaced the back door, we put the old trim back up and did not secure it well or caulk it. Guessing that this was the source of the leak, I removed the old trim and filled the outside gaps with spray foam.  We let that sit overnight while we cut and painted the new trim.  The next morning I trimmed the excess foam expansion and nailed the new trim in place.  I then caulked all around the trim.  Hopefully all that effort will pay off and we won't see any more water spots in our kitchen.

New foam in door gaps

Trim cut and painted

Excess foam removed

Door trim nailed and sealed

We also purchased online a new thermostat for our A/C and heating.  The one provided to us was not programmable and we wanted some flexibility on configuring our temperatures to help reduce some costs, esp. with the heating.  The unit we bought was the same maker as the previous one and had all the same connections and configurations.  It was a very easy swap.  Now we can play with the programming to see what works best for us.

New thermostat will help costs and allow us to set heat in advance

I had some time leftover on Saturday night to caulk all the corners of the pantry.  When our taper guy finished his work, he realized he had forgotten this room and I told him I would do it for him.  Doing it tonight will give it time to dry before we paint tomorrow.

After finishing the door trim Sunday morning, we were able to prime the rest of the kitchen.  While we were painting, we had a visit from a guy who gave us a quote on installing our flooring. He came highly recommended by Gene Neumann (of Neumann's Paint) and he didn't mind stopping in to measure our house on the weekend.  Laurie spent quite awhile with him going over what we want done and getting ideas from him. We think he will do an awesome job, but the price is quite a lot more than we expected so we may be waiting a little while longer for our floor.  With that interruption, it took us longer to finish the priming work and we didn't get finished until about an hour before we had to leave for the valley.  In the past we've had a rule that we won't do any work on Sundays. After breaking our rule this time, we won't do that again.  It made for a long trip home and two very tired, grumpy people come Monday morning.

Finished priming dining room area . . .

and kitchen (pantry done too, but not shown)

Stats: 2 Home Depot trips; 1 Walmart trip
Remodeling expense 11/13-11/20: -$162
Remodeling expense to date: $34,165