home depot run

Don't ask me why Dima, who is a foot taller than me, insisted on riding in the back with the wood.

the finally wall

It's up.

another wall goes up

One more to go. Adam the electrician comes tomorrow to pull three new circuits out to the garage. Two 120s and a 240 for my (eventual) glass kiln. Exciting!! Now I must retrieve the kid from Dima's parent's house.

Too Tired to Blob

I do mean to say "I'm too tired to blog" but I feel like a blob and it seemed appropriate. I'll get caught up here soon. In the meantime, I started posting to metro.texture again if you're interested. I got some cool shots on the Metro this morning with my new camera, I mean phone. It's a AT&T Tilt and SUPER cool. Can you say 3.0 megapixels? You can see a significant difference in the quality of photo. You can actually print the pictures I'm taking as 5x7s. Crazy!

Okay, so I guess I just technically blogged. But I was still tired while I did it. More later about the phone. More later in general.

Baby in a Carseat

I started a new blog. One year of Lydia Violet in her carseat in pictures. Check it out at babyinacarseat.blogspot.com.

attic done and storin' stuff

Dima made major progress in the attic area tonight. He put down flooring and we were able to move some of the stuff back in from the backyard just as it was starting to rain. Whew! Nice job!

one wall of insullation done

Dima and Natalia show off our handiwork.

at it again

I just dropped Lydia off at Dima's parent's and we're going to try to make some more headway tonight. Natalia is on her way.

callin' it quits for the night

We've studded one full wall and started insulating. It's been a long day! There's a lot more to go but we feel good about what we've done. A big shout out to the Krug, especially Robin. We couldn't have done it without you!

the walls go up

Robin is back and helping us. We've nearly studded one entire wall. It would be going faster if I could measure my cuts right. *Sigh* Dima's dad, Vladimir, is making a Home Depot run.

The Wrap Up

First, I apologize for the quality of this post as I'm am exhausted and not really firing on all cylinders. Here's how the first Krug Molotok project day ended up:

Overall, it really looks excellent and both of us are excited about getting the space done and ready to use. It was a huge step today and we can't thank the Krug enough for all their help. The ceiling is up and the can lights are installed. And when our new energy efficient light bulbs are on and warmed up Dima says it looks like a baseball stadium in there. Plenty of light to paint by, even at night.

Work was started on the walls but we ran into some technical difficulties. (And I say we because I was providing support in the pits—in the form of Duncan Donuts, Home Depot and Quizno's runs—to the Krug, not because I actually ran into the difficulties myself.) For some reason the concrete anchors did not work with the block walls in the garage and they didn't hold the firring strips steady. I'm not exactly sure why they didn't work and frankly I'm not sure that the guys know why either. They just didn't. So on one of my Home Depot runs the guys sent me in search of some plastic anchor sleeves. The result... an excellent story about why I hate Home Depot. Here's what happened:

I go the hardware aisle. First there's no one there to help. Shock. And when I finally find someone I seem to know more about what I'm looking for than he does. Let's be clear. I am no hardware expert. Then when we find what seems like a solution—plastic alligator anchors—he inspects the box briefly and declares the solution found. I ask him to confirm that they will in fact work with the size screw that we are using and he again assures me they will. Then he just walks off. When I actually read the box I find that, no, these anchors will not work because they are for the wrong size screw, which is clearly stated on the box. Then the icing on the cake... they do not sell the size screw that these plastic anchors are made for. Of course they don't! So even if I wanted to I can not use them. Useless Home Depot! (What's even more irritating is, just by mentioning them here on the blog, they'll probably get an ad in the Google ads to the right. Argh!)

So, the Krug has reassessed the situation and they have a new plan for the walls. I'm not really sure what it is yet. Robin will return tomorrow to help Dima.

Now... must sleep.

Krug Conference

Ceiling is done. Now the crew is making final decisions before starting the walls.

more ceiling

under construction

The ceiling goes up.

the Krug arrives

Robin, Serge, Dima & Andrew. (Not pictured, John.)

There Really Could Be T-shirts

Of course there could. Because in true Dima fashion... he's created a logo.

The Studio and the Krug, a Tale of Devotion

This year Dima turned 37 (on October 29th)! And in the five years that I've known him he hasn't had a decent space to practice his passion—painting.

When we bought our house three years ago, one of the reasons we chose it was the potential that the garage held for being a spectacular studio for Dima. (It certainly wasn't for the ceiling height in the basement.) Well, three years later and that is all that space still is... a lot of potential.

Last year (2006) when a group of us traveled to New Jersey for Memorial Day we started talking about an article that I had read in Real Simple Magazine about some friends that organized a group to help one another complete home improvement projects. They called their group "the Tong" after the Chinese word for gang. (They were not Chinese.) Being a group of Russians and spouses of Russians, we decided to call our own group, Krug Molotok (the Circle of the Hammer).

What I'm getting down to is that I finally activated the Krug in honor of Dima's 37th birthday. I'd really like for him to have the space to paint and thus far we've been unable to get around to taking on this project for ourselves. Our other house projects have always taken precedent and I decided to put a stop to that. (Granted, we are at this same moment remodeling our upstairs bathroom. You can't blame us for trying...)

So tomorrow is the official, inaugural Krug Molotok project, though in name only. We've all gotten together multiple times before to help out with this sort of thing. (All we need now are t-shirts.)

I'll keep you updated during the day on their progress. It should be fun and at the end we get a studio, finally!

the junk

This picture doesn't do the pile justice.

the studio cometh, and right quick

This week has been a week of big days and tomorrow is no exception. Tomorrow we finally take the first major step towards turning the garage into an art studio. The Krug Molotok (the Circle of the Hammer) arrives at 9 a.m. Tonight we're getting the last bit of junk out and every reasonable bit of dust.

Stay turned...

Shock to the System

First day back at work today. Oyahyoy.

I guess it went better than might have been expected. There were no tears. And most everyone seemed happy to have me back. Now all I need is to get used to being back (It's a real mind shift after almost four months "off.") and to adjust to not having as much time with Lydia everyday.

As for you, you should get used to there being far less up-to-the-minute cameraphone photos of our girl on the blog and I guess, in general, far fewer posts from me.

Besides that I'm exhausted. It's hard getting up with a baby at 2 a.m. and 4:40 a.m. and then getting up to go to work 2 hours after that. Especially if you're me... someone who has a really hard time falling asleep as it is. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be this morning but I'm paying for it now. (She says, as she's blogging at 12:06 a.m. I'm nothing if not dedicated to my craft.)

That said, I'm off to bed. More later...