When Ideal Reality Becomes Real Reality: Home Improvement

It's done! Our new basement floor is done! Yee Haw! Hip Hip Hooray! The crew from Big Red Decorative Concrete finished its work last week Friday, and our dungeon looks phenomenal. Don't you just love it when a home improvement project ends up beyond your wildest dreams? Here's a look ... before and after.



Photo 1: Basement with carpet

Photo 2: Basement with carpet

Photo 3: Basement with black mastic. Yes, folks, under the carpet we found asbestos tiles. This is what the floor looked like after the tiles and carpet were removed. Pretty, yes?



Photo 4: A close-up of our stamped concrete. Check out the detail!

Photo 5: Our finished basement!

Photo 6: More of our finished basement!



Photo 7: The sunroom with carpet

Photo 8: The sunroom with the new floor!

We are just thrilled with how this turned out! The completion of this project means I get to go shopping for new furniture!

Wherever you are, whatever you're doing ... Keep It Real.



Real Reality Thursday

Here's what's up today:

The peeps started Kindergarten yesterday, so I am in full home-alone-in-the-house party mode!

Wahoo! Rockin' It!

Of course, that depends on what you call a party. So far today, I've done a load of laundry, paid bills, drank coffee, ate a peach, ate a handful of almonds, thought about eating cookies (willpower, willpower) played with my Twitter account, took a sip of water (I'm trying to drink more water) and researched roman shades for our office.

Essentially, I'm lollygaggin' around. And lovin' it. Because I know in about two weeks, I will be bored out of my gourd.

I'm also waiting for our floor crew to arrive. We are on Day 4 of the new flooring installation. I am super excited about this project! We are having stamped concrete floors installed in the sun room and basement. The stamp is of an 8-inch-wide hardwood floor plank! They stamped the floors yesterday.  Amazin!. I think they are going to stain them today. Can't wait! Especially because to get to the deep freeze and laundry room I must go out the front door, down the walkway, and into the garage. Nothing like carrying a basket of your unmentionables across the front yard for everybody and their brother to ogle!

By the way, you can now follow me on Twitter! I finally had the chance to explore a new social media outlet. But I can't figure out how to get the Tweet button on my website. So, for now you can find me here:

@RealRealityChic

Please be kind because I am so new to Twittering and Tweeting.

Wherever you are, whatever you're doing ... Keep It Real



Real, Ideal, or Denial?

"Joy is the best makeup."



I came across this Anne Lamott quote one day last week, and it has stuck with me. When I feel my face scrunch up in annoyance or anger or realize I'm clenching my jaws, this simple phrase pops into my head. And it helps. I ry to smile. I relax my jaw. I wonder what a crabby apple I must look like to those around me.

I've only read one of Lamott's books, Imperfect Birds. I can't say whether I enjoyed it, but I found it interesting enough - intriguing enough - to keep reading. At the outset, I dismissed Elizabeth as a silly mother in an agonizingly drawn out denial about her daughter's drug addiction. But as I continued reading, my inner voice kept whisperhing, "What would YOU do if you were in Elizabeth's shoes?"

As I continue to reflect on the novel, I find myself wondering if Elizabeth was in deep denial, or was she everymother, a woman just trying to turn her real reality into her ideal reality? And if that's the case, who among us hasn't attempted that great feat?

Ideal Reality Becomes Real Reality: Meeting Gretchen Rubin

 I've mentioned several times around this blog how much I love the book The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. It's one of my all-time favorite books because it just makes sense to my world. It's well-written and well-researched. It's just a uniquely intelligent literary work.

So you can imagine how super excited I was to read that she has a second book coming out on September 4: Happier At Home. I cannot wait to get my hands on this!

But wait, there's more ...

Gretchen, a  KC native, is coming to Unity Temple on the Plaza! She will be in town September 20 to talk about her new book. I ordered up a couple of tickets and a copy of the book yesterday from the local bookseller, Rainy Day Books.

But wait, there's more ...

My friend, Heather, who writes the brilliant blog, Battery Brains, is driving up from Jefferson City to come with me! I love spending time with Heather and hate that our visits are way, way, way too rare. (By the way, if you haven't been reading Heather's blog, you are missing out. She is a crazy-talented writer with life wisdom beyond her years!)

It doesn't get much better than this!

Oh ... and I have an extra ticket to the event if anyone is interested!

Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, keep it real.