Bloggy Milestone

Monday, April 7, 2008
Yesterday, while I was watching the Rockies' Bullpen give away a win to the Arizona Diamondbacks, my Hot Chicks Dig Smart Men stat counter went over 10,000 visitors.

I suppose this is a bloggy milestone, since 10,000 is a nice, round number.

I appear to get about 100 unique visitors a day, plus or minus. Like most blogs, this site sees more traffic on weekdays.

Since I started this as an amusement for myself, I'm not sure if the numbers necessarily mean anything, but there you have it.

In other news, my Smart Man and I will be attempting to stop our procrastination, and get some projects done around the house this spring and summer. First up: Getting the outside of the house painted. Since we have a two story home with a walk-out basement, we will not be doing the work ourselves. Instead we will hire someone with tall, tall ladders and no fear of heights to do it for us.

Getting the house painted is the first priority, but after that's done, we'll be getting the kitchen and downstairs bathroom tiled, redecorating the spare bedroom, and possibly re-carpeting the library and stairs. It all depends on how long the money lasts.

16 comments:

Random Michelle K said...

We re-tiled out kitchen backstop ourselves, and despite the fact that someone (ahem) did a crappy job getting a smooth surface before we applied the new tile, it was relatively easy and painless.

I recommend the tiles that don't require spacers. They were simple to install.

I also recommend the person with the most OCD putting up the tile. After two rows I took over because Michael was putting them up too crooked for my likes. :)

I haven't tiled a bathroom, but the guy who did my parent's bathroom recommend using swimming pool tile glue/adhesive for the tub, so they won't fall off for anything. :)

Janiece said...

Michelle, we're actually tiling the floor. It's currently white linoleum, and just MUST be replaced.

Who the hell puts white flooring in a house that's designed for families, anyway?

Random Michelle K said...

Oh. Ew.

I put down el cheapo tile in our new bathroom and computer room.

I'm not sure if floor tile would be easier or harder.

And I would assume that the the person who put down while linoleum would be the same as the person who thinks flat white paint is also a good idea. (I actually had to put up chair rail and paint the lower portion a darker color because of all the FELINE FOOTPRINTS on the kitchen wall. [You'd have to see the layout of the house, but when tearing up the basement stairs and making the sharp corner to get to the living room, the large primary cat often gets all FOUR of his feet on the wall. (This is why I will never buy flat paint.[And I can't imagine kids are any better.])])

Janiece said...

Michelle, we're going to hire someone.

Neither one of us has any experience with flooring, and I think everyone concerned will be happier if we get an expert in to do the work.

Random Michelle K said...

Ah.

Sometimes I forget that everyone around us most likely has more disposable income than we do. :)

Which is really fine with us, since if we wanted more money we'd get different jobs. I just automatically assume jobs like that will be done in-house, so to speak. (laugh)

Which is also why our upstairs bathroom has not been remodeled!

Anne C. said...

Janiece, a woman with a library is a woman after my own heart. :)

Tiling the floor is pretty darned easy, in my opinion (not saying you should do it though - people are their own best judge of their abilities) and I imagine it's easier than tiling a wall, where gravity's working against you. I've tiled my kitchen floor (advice: seal it right away, if you put it off, you'll never do it) and put in wood flooring (advice: get the help of a man's upper body strength. I was lucky enough to have two uncles help me!). It's not hard, but it is a pain in the butt.
My plans include putting a bathroom in the basement. I'm not sure if I'm going to do my own tiling. Depends on my mood, I suppose. I wouldn't knowing I could do it.

PS - *LOVE* the picture of you, Michelle. I'm guessing it's you because of the beautiful curly hair (and no, I'm not being sarcastic).

Anne C. said...

Michelle, I'm there with ya on the in-house labor issue. It's only on this bathroom project that I've even considered having someone else do some of the more challenging tasks, and it's mostly because I've never done plumbing or electrical work before.

Janiece said...

Hmmm...libraries.

I like Michelle's hair, too, alhtough I imagine a fair amount of thinning is required to keep it under control.

And given my druthers, I'd almost always rather hire someone to do this type of work. We do our own inside painting, but that's about it.

Random Michelle K said...

The plumbing and wiring are the things we feel most comfortable doing--we did everything for our computer room and bathroom downstairs *except* tapping the sewer line. Ew.

As long as you're strong enough to open and close valves, the plumbing is pretty easy. I left much of it to Michael, because I don't like working over my head.

If you have someone whose done wiring and plumbing before, then you should be able to do much of the work yourself.

I personally think that other than putting in lights with three way switches, the wiring was the easiest part. But then it also required the least brute strength.

We're not very good at putting up drywall, so that's our biggest concern. Much of what we did in the basement looks not so great. But then again we were really pressed for time, which didn't help.

Drywall might be a problem for you as well, because drywall sheets are REALLY heavy. I struggled to help Michael carry ours, and it was the biggest problem putting up the walls. When I had smaller sections, I could hold them up on the toe of my boot, so that wasn't too bad, but it was still a struggle for me to manipulate the sheets. (Same thing for the flooring. I couldn't move a sheet of flooring by myself.)

Oh, if you put anything in the basement, I strongly recommend elevating the floor even it it's only an inch, and insulating between the cement and your floor. It makes a HUGE difference in how warm the room stays.

Also, it's cheaper to raise the floor when putting in a bathroom in the basement than to go into the cement. Faster as well. You can do it with a six inch floor if space is an issue. Also, they make mildew resistant drop ceiling tile that is soundproof, and snaps into a framework on the joists, so it takes very little space.

Sorry if I hijacked this thread Janiece. Those were some of the things I wished I'd known before we started our project. :)

Random Michelle K said...

And thanks for the compliments on my hair.

And it *does* require thinning. And a lot of "product". But I've finally learned to live with it.

Janiece said...

Michelle, no trouble. I'm sure there are folks out there that can use the advice, since we can't all be Mary-Sue's like Jim.

Hehe.

Nathan said...

Yay 10,000!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, Janiece!

Janiece said...

Jess, if you're here to join in the discussion, you are more than welcome. If you're trolling for the word "procrastination," then beware the Shovel of Doom™.

Anne C. said...

Thanks for the advice, Michelle! I'll keep the insulated floor in mind. I don't know if I have the headroom to do a completely raised floor, but I'll keep it in mind.
The other idea I had to warm up the bathroom in cold weather is to put some of that electric floor heater mesh under the tile.

MWT said...

Jess is a spammer. I've deleted stuff that looked like that from my blog recently.