Ponder: It Takes Two: Our Story

Biographies are not my favorite genre for reading but occasionally there is someone who piques my curiosity. While heavily engaged in home improvement shows, a sequence of remodeling and renovating shows featuring Jonathon and Drew Scott, as the Property Brothers amused me because of the banter and antics between the twin brothers. It Takes Two: Our Story by Jonathon and Drew Scott ©September 2017 was light reading that gave more background into their personal lives and family. It is an amusing read about their antics and entrepreneurial endeavors and it is presented in a non-braggadocio tone.

Per Amazon it got a rating of 4.7 out of 5 but that was with only 350 ratings. Should I conclude that TV watchers are not book readers?

The table of contents of the book shows how the chapters alternate between Jonathon telling the story with comments by Drew and Drew telling the story with comments by Jonathon. The comments earn several chuckles in their own right and are worth the distractions from the main text.

One anecdotal story from the book's forward will whet your appetite. Minutes after Jonathon was born, the nurse said, "Doctor, I think there is another baby.” Drew was a complete surprise. The twins were born within four minutes of each other. That may be hard to believe but the year of their birth was 1978. My own three children were born in 1980, 1983, and 1986, and even in the late eighties, I did not know their genders until each appeared. And I never experienced an ultrasound with any of them in that era. (Yee, gads! Referring to that time in my life as an "era" makes me sound old.) The book continues with more "telling" tales and concludes with a satisfying chapter addressing the issue of what is real and what is staged on these so called “reality” shows. I enjoyed this book.

 

I have also read two other biographical type books about the stars of a different home improvement show, Fixer Upper featuring Chip and Joanna Gaines and their four kids. The Magnolia Story was authored by Joanna (reviewed in my 10/30/17 post) while Chip wrote Capital Gaines (reviewed in my post for 11/9/17). Of these three biographies of icons in of the HGTV home improvement series I liked It Takes Two: Our Story best. I would rank The Magnolia Story second and Capital Gaines third, although I did give both of them four stars in my reviews. To be consistent, I rate It Takes Two: Our Story four stars translating to "Really good; maybe only one weak aspect or limited audience". 

Because my interest in home improvement television series is waning, I could, with 20/20 hindsight reconsider rating all three of these books as three stars instead of four, but I won't. My daughter-in-law enjoyed The Magnolia Story. My husband is currently reading It Takes Two: Our Story and so far liking it. I mailed a copy of It Takes Two: Our Story to my son who is in construction management and who once toyed with the idea becoming an entrepreneur with an architectural business of his own. With this much of audience engaged, the book has got to be pretty interesting, right? Let the four star rating stand among those in the audience who remain interested in this particular topic and curious about these particular celebrities of the field.

Ponder Post: The Magnolia Story

Since I am a fan of the HGTV show Fixer Upper, I really enjoyed this book. I read it on the flight east to Chicago on September 25th and finished it one evening shortly after reaching my destination. Why do I tell you this? Because I delayed writing a review post about this book until I had posted about the Chicago trip itself, which took me a while. Consequently I am having a hard time remembering what was actually in the book - just that I liked it a lot. The majority of The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines is engaging, the beginning and the end are good, and the writing style flows readily. My only negative is that I do recall it as having a bit of a doldrums for a short section in the middle. My eyes glazed over a bit with a discussion of investment capital.

Most TV shows, at the least the ones I am willing to invest my time in watching,  engage on two levels. There is the immediate topic of the show – a crime to be solved, a medical condition to be conquered, a court case to be won – but then there is the continuing back story of personal lives of the characters – their sex/love life, their battle with addiction, their demons from a past trauma or childhood hardship. It is often the undercurrent of this back story that keeps me returning to the show each week, rather than the isolated episodic focus. This book is kind of that back story to the TV show Fixer Upper.

For the uninitiated, Fixer Upper is a home design and renovation show that features a husband/wife team who take old wrecks of houses and turns them into beautiful but comfortable and livable homes. It has run four seasons and this upcoming fifth season will be its last. Fixer Upper stars the married couple Chip and Joanna Gaines and occasionally cameos their four children. Chip Gaines is a laughable, impulsive, hardworking, builder/contractor whose antics have one believing he must have a dose of hyperactivity or has imbibed an overly generous dose of caffeine. Joanna Gaines appears to be the artistic designer half of the pair, a calming foil to Chip's ebullience. On the show they are portrayed as strongly devoted to each other and very family-oriented; I believe this image is genuine.

How can this couple have achieved such success and at a relatively young age, while being actively engaged in raising a family of four children? How can Joanna continue to look so good after birthing four children? (The book does not answer that question so I am left to assume good genes, although there is a brief reference to jogging.) This book does tell of their struggles, successes, and determination as it describes the ups and downs of their path to stardom - non-Hollywood style. It restores one's faith in there being people out there with good clean values. It was a comforting, satisfying read that, at least to me, seemed to exude honesty. Those unfamiliar with the show will not get much out of this book but fans of Fixer Upper will definitely give it two thumbs up. It has a five star rating on Amazon. I will probably give it a four star rating due only to its limited audience.

Updating Our Lighting

BEFORE
Frank and I had been noting for quite a while that our lighting was inadequate as our eyes aged. We had been contemplating an update prior to his fall from the ladder in November and then other priorities intervened. So in late June, before and during our county fair and firework outings, and just one week prior to leaving on travel, we proceeded with a contractor to update the lighting in our family room/nook/kitchen. Crazy, huh? Timing is everything.

My daughter Robin advised me to take pictures before making any changes, a good reminder for something I rarely remember to do. Here is the family room with its two hemisphere fixtures on the ceiling.  They were very dim and I scornfully referred to them as the two boobs.  In the day time, since there is a eight foot sliding glass door at one end of the room, the lighting is passable.

But at night, the room is dull and we were constantly trying to maneuver task lighting and safely relocate lamp cords in order to see to read, play games, or do puzzles.

The nearby kitchen has a dropped ceiling which housed four ballasts and eight fluorescent light tubes. We do have under counter spot lighting and a few accents over the sink, but most of the time I felt like I was cooking in my own shadow.

Then we had someone point out to us that the center island looked like an autopsy table with its overhead fluorescent lab lights. Once noted, the similarity was difficult to deny and even harder to ignore. That somewhat morbid observation sealed the deal for an update.

Having come this far we would update the nook eating area as well. A stained oak box on the ceiling had been an afterthought at the time of building when a hanging chandelier proved to cast insufficient light. I have never been a fan of fluorescent lighting but at the time it was the most expeditious option.

While we were at it, we would also have a contractor remove the wallpaper and texture the walls in the eating area so that painting would be an option.

Painting. Ahh, yes. We had started to do that before Christmas, trying out some gray hues on different walls. Before he'd broken his hip Frank, had painted the stairwell wall to get an idea of how the change from peach would look.

Then he "painted out the brush" and we looked at the color on two other walls. This is the wall opposite the sliding glass door. A color sample of the more beige, "warmer", gray option is tucked under the clock.

This is the fireplace wall around the television. I was procrastinating on final selection of a color until the appropriate lighting had been installed. Once we had a contractor lined up and ready, though, I went with the sample we had started with. After all, we had being living with those peach/gray patchwork walls for over six months. 

DURING

The lighting installation was first to occur and was to take three days. All the furniture was moved and the floors were taped over with brown paper. There was an exploratory half-day to locate the joists for running an additional line for a dimmer on one of the circuits. Frank could not just sit still. He used his stud finder and marked the ceiling joists with blue tape. Eee gads - he did get up on a ladder again much to my protests! He rationalized, "Only the first step and only to put tape directly overhead. I will get down with care and move the ladder at each piece of tape so I am never leaning."

The joists ran orthogonal to the path of the line, of course, and so many, many, small rectangular access holes were cut out from the ceiling in order to drill a path through. The end goal was twelve lights around the perimeter and four lights in the center on two separate circuits that could be dimmed individually.

The central inset area of the kitchen ceiling was planned for six lights. An offset joist changed that plan and we were forced to go down to a matrix of four, and those four could not even map out into a perfect rectangle – but close enough.

Determined to have the lights installed before the painters were due to patch and texture, the electrical contractor called in seven electricians from three job sites, all at once, to finish the job that third day. I seriously do not know how they stayed out of each others' way. Frank and I had a tough time keeping out of their way!

Our first painter had bid the job as a small amount of ceiling repair around the recessed can installations. I think he was a bit taken aback by the extent of the patching and so reneged. After the electricians had scrambled, we had a two day delay while our contractor found another painter who was willing to deal with all the wall board replacement inserts, patching, and re-texturizing. Actually the break was welcome, giving us our home back for a brief respite.

The new painters came in and wrapped everything, and I mean everything, in plastic wrap. We could not get to the pantry, the cutlery, the sink, the dishes, or the refrigerator.

Every piece of furniture was wrapped.

The walls and hallways were wrapped. Gentle breezes wafting through would billow the plastic sheets like transparent curtains in a haunted house. The mood was eerie and somewhat creepy, especially with the accompanying rustling sound. I kept waiting to hear a low moan emitted from somewhere.

It made me feel like Patrick McGoohan, called Number Six, in the TV spy show The Prisoner, popular in the United States in the late 1960's and early 1970's. I felt like Rover, the thin walled bouncing ball that kept all the prisoners on site and in line, had invaded our home for a short stay.

Frank and I hid out in the living room or upstairs while all this was taking place. Of course the home environment was not quite as bad as the following image from The Prisoner but you get the idea. Fortunately the experience was short lived. 

We were going to remove the wall paper in the eating area and reconfigure the phone. When we originally moved into the house in 1988 we had a corded wall phone centrally located above the kitchen counter – our version of control central for the household. When we changed to a cordless satellite arrangement, the phone needed to sit lower, so Frank fashioned a wooden shelf with a high back to hide the hole in the wall from the phone jack outlet.

It then occurred to us that the main base could be elsewhere and this location could instead house a satellite handset, that did not require a jack. We collapsed the phone jack into the wall, wires intact so no service would be lost. But I marked where it would be relative to the cabinets and documented the location with a photo so we could find it relatively easily if we ever needed to dig it out from behind the wallboard. The wall paper pattern removed had been one of peachy swirls with red speckles.

Having dealt with wall paper removal in our master bedroom, Frank was not going to repeat his efforts. We had the painters removed the wall paper in the nook area. The process really did make quite a mess.

Then the texturing was applied on the walls and ceiling patches. Now we understood better why everything was wrapped in plastic.

The final paint color was applied. I went with the initial choice of Benjamin Moore Harbor Gray, and not a more beige-gray that had been a contender.  I kept my fingers crossed that it would not appear too cold and sterile as some bluish grays are wont to do. 

AFTER:

Here are the updated rooms. I like the way the kitchen looks with the autopsy light removed. It makes the kitchen feel larger and airier –  and cheerier.

We used a pairing of baseboard and crown moulding to dress up the central ceiling inset. Several people suggested pendant lights, but after nearly three decades in this kitchen I could not see myself negotiating around some blobs hanging obtrusively in the center, collecting grease and dust.

The nook, too, seemed more open without the extra huge array of light panels looming down from above. We are trying out the clock where the phone used to be. It may just be a tad too large for the space.

We have not rehung paintings nor the clutter of wall calendar and clocks citing times in different parts of the country. They do serve a function though, so we will need to work out that detail of what to keep, what to relocate and what to part with. I really do like (and use) that oak rimmed clock I got Frank as a retirement gift. It has only one hand, which points to the day of the week.

We had a choice of "temperature" when selecting the LED light bulbs; 2300K is soft cream and 4000K is crisp white. Being a pure color fanatic with my quilting, and doing this project so we had more illumination, I'd thought the brighter white would be my first choice and that the softer tone would appear a dirty yellow.

Not so. The 4000K lights were so white that I felt like I was in a jewelry store that was being protected from being robbed. The softer color was much more homelike instead of business like. We put in a large enough number that the softer toned 2300K was perfectly adequate. In fact everything can be dimmed and we rarely use full power!

All the wall decor is not back but most of the furniture is. We still have some tweaking to do as to placement. The contractors were out of here just in the nick of time for our travels to Oklahoma and North Carolina. Enjoying the updates would need to wait until we return from our travels. At least I could review the pix on my cell phone and use my imagination while we were away.

Ponder Post: New Cook Top

We moved into our present house spring of 1988. This same cook top has been in the kitchen since then. It has had every one of the burners replaced at least once but lately its failure mode had become intermittent and diagnostics for repair finicky. I would set a pot or pan to cook only to come back later and find the burner was not putting out any heat and it was unknown as to how long. I would start something on high and when I turned it to low the burner would quit. I've been beating coiled elements into submission by pounding on them with my wooden spatula. They would obey, but not for long. This was extremely frustrating. When I screamed through gritted teeth and flung my spatula across the length of the kitchen, Frank agreed he would stop trying to repair this one any more and we could buy a new one - even though this one was still shy of turning 30 years.

This ancient stovetop with a centered downdraft option was a GE. Frank made noises about changing brands because this one had broken (yeah, after nearly 30 years). We kept with the GE brand in hopes that the countertop opening would be the same size and we were in luck that it was. A bit of that central vertical divider board needed to be sawed down to accommodate the new model.

We opted to go without a downdraft option. Our old one had never drawn well and was so noisy I had rarely, if ever, used it while cooking. With two windows nearby, there was quite adequate "side draft" whenever something on the stovetop went thermally awry, requiring ventilation. Besides, there is no code that one has to have a downdraft. As a bonus, that big duct inconveniently placed diagonally within the height of the base cabinet would go away, and there would be more usable cabinet space.

The absent downdraft duct would leave a gaping hole in the floor of the base cabinet that would allow items a pathway to fall "down the rabbit hole" into the vast wastelands beneath the kitchen floor.

The hole can be easily plugged or blocked but Frank is still not quite healed enough. He needs to regain enough range of motion in the hip joint to allow him to get down on the floor and do repairs. Currently he still needs his tool to get his right sock onto his toes and over his heel but once he gets that far, he can now reach down and pull it up. Frank continues to make progress healing, but I will need to be a bit creative in finding a solution for dealing with this hole right now.

I temporarily put a tray over that egress to below and reloaded the cabinet. Who's to know - except that I just told you.

Voila! The installation of the new cooktop happened this morning. Here is the new GE cooktop with touch controls and a sleek ceramic surface that will be easy to clean. Instead of grime-attracting knobs, it has analog touch controls. A swipe of my finger along an arc controls the heat setting. 

I have five burners instead of four. Two of them can be synchronized and bridged to act as a griddle heating source, one has a three rings option, one has a two ring option, and one can be temperature limited to act as a warming burner.

So far I have boiled water on each of the burners to verify that they work. After all isn't that the first thing a new bride learns to cook? 

Eee-gads. Here I am blogging after 5:30 pm. You don't think Frank is going to come asking me "what's for dinner", do you?

We Survived December!

It has been over a month since my last Wander or Ponder post, which, ironically was titled Relax and Be Thankful. It is New Year's Eve and we have no plans to go out. Tonight's situation is an opportunity for relaxing for which I am very thankful. December was quite hectic, but I am still grateful for all that transpired; even the hard work part of it. The end justified the means. Hold on for a saga of the events to come - at least for some of the pre-Christmas happenings.

I belong to two quilt guilds, Diablo Valley Quilters and Amador Valley Quilters, and am on the board for AVQ. I also attend club meetings for the HandiQuilter long arm machine users, both the sit down and stand up type, held at a quilt shop about 30 miles north. I frequent my local quilt shop in downtown Livermore, too. Two guilds, one board, two clubs and one local quilt shop all held their holiday potlucks in the same week. Between December 6th and December 15th, I attended six holiday celebrations. I guess we quilters really party!

Starting out on December 6th was the brunch by the local quilt shop. It is a lot of fun since each table is decorated by a volunteer who puts in a lot of effort. Each table decor is unique, inventive, and inspiring. Here is the table I was at. The black glass goblets were topped off with paper white bulbs and a cookie. Behind tall flutes were filled with rounded jeweled stones and tall berry sprigs. The table was overlaid with a quilted tree skirt.

The place settings were layered with a lacy charger at the base, topped with a clear glass plate placed on a paper plate. The effect really looked like an expensive decoupaged set of dishes.

In the middle of quilting merriment Frank and I went to a SIRS (Sons in Retirement) Christmas dance on Thursday December 10th. Here we are cutting up the rug - er - the dance floor.

That weekend we also took Alex to his annual Friday through Sunday December 11th-13th Christmas themed camp weekend in Los Gatos, about a 60 mile trip.

The fly in the ointment amidst all this merriment was that on the morning of December 16th we would be cutting up the rug, literally. We were having hickory hardwood floors installed and needed to have the kitchen, nook, family room, and over-crammed closet under the stairs emptied before the installers arrived. On December 14th this is our family room. Cue music:

♫♩♬
Silent night, Holy night 

All is calm, all is bright.

On the morning of December 15th the wood arrived to acclimate temperature-wise and moisture-wise.

Then the cacophony throughout the remainder of the downstairs begins. Here is the once serene living room, whose Christmas decorations had been once artistically and lovingly displayed about. Frankly precisely placed a pole full of coats between two chairs. I tried to improve the situation by inserting a pad so the pole would not mar the chair backs and "Timber...!" it all toppled over. Frank and I looked at each other, instantly and unanimously agreeing, "Leave it that way."

On the other side of the living room there would be no accessing the fine china in the hutch or tweaking the garland carefully draped above. Emptying the under-stair closet in front had taken over that real estate.

The hallway between the living and dining rooms suffered a similar fate. At least we could still get in the bathroom without having to dash up stairs when nature called.

The biggest ruckus came from removing the floor in the kitchen and nook areas the morning of December 16th. Underneath some click-in-place tiles, a vinyl floor and its glued down underlayment had to be pried, chipped, sanded, and crowbarred off. We were totally unprepared for dust mitigation and the finely ground wood silt permeated everywhere!

We escaped a lot of the "noise, Noise, NOISE, NOISE", as the Grinch would say, by zotting off to the final day of a quilt show I'd wanted to see in the neighboring city of Pleasanton. They were very artsy wall hangings. Here is a sample of one that caught my eye.

The hickory installation crew was large though, and worked late, so the banging and hammering of the installation only lasted two full and very long days  – Wednesday and Thursday. We were glad to have them gone in such short order but as an unfortunate trade-off, they left the cleanup to us. Ugh! A TV cable also got cut in the process. We cleaned the floor and the first item I put out was the Christmas rug. We then added two chairs and a jury-rigged TV so Frank and I could watch the final concluding episode of his favorite TV series Haven, Thursday evening December 17th.

Starting the next morning, Friday December 18th, we would have to scurry because Dan, Carrie, and 20-month old Vivian would be flying up for Christmas arriving early Tuesday morning, December 22nd. The garage and the back deck are still disastrous hard-hat only areas but we will get to them in 2016.

Before the arrival of company, we squeezed in one more holiday party at Alex's home at St. Denis on Saturday afternoon December 19th. They always put out a fantastic spread. The long buffet table offered several main dish alternatives.

The dessert table was scrumptious, too. Singing Karaoke afterward was a blast!

Frank and I worked our butts off but we were ready, so to speak, for house guests. Upon arrival, here are Vivian and Dan exploring the arched bridge in our backyard.

We accompanied them on a walk around the neighborhood, too, that first day they were here.

The rest of the action during their visit is the topic of another post - or maybe two. That will be a great kickoff to Wander or Ponder in 2016! For now I am content to sit back while recuperating from partying, massive re-organization, and hosting. I am thankful that I can stay home on New Year's Eve. I will relax. Relax and Be Thankful. Yup, I like that mantra.