Sunday, April 13, 2008

Don't Fence George In!

Well - we did it! We survived the painting, packing, moving, and unpacking process!! It was a really tough two weeks though. Sorry it's been even longer than that since I've blogged (it seems like I'm always apologizing for this. Sorry. Hey...wait a minute..).

The removing wall paper process was really rough. We had used a whole quart spray bottle of this other remover, had worked for an hour scraping while the remover was eating through our fingers and we only had about a foot of the border removed! Until I remember my friend suggested that we buy a steamer. Boy did that save our lives!! I have learned two things when removing wallpaper: 1. Use a steamer - it's still work, but it is a life saver. 2. Never use wallpaper so that you won't want to remove it later because as hard as it is to put up it's harder to remove!! The painting was not bad - actually I may have kind of enjoyed it if we hadn't been in the middle of a painting marathon. WE started on the weekend by removing the wallpaper one day and the next painting the dining room. Then we finished off the other rooms by working every day for about a week at our regular job and then driving back the apartment to feed George and give him his shot (diabetic cats need to be on a tight schedule) and quick eat and then we would go to the house for about 4-5 hours until about 11pm to paint. Oh yah, and because we had to prime the red,white, and blue bedroom I figured out why they named it "kilz" - because if you don't open every window in the house while using it - it Kills you!!! The smell was horrible! We had to leave in the middle of painting because we both had a paint headache from breathing in the fumes!!!

I suppose that you are curious to see the painting job that we completed - so here:


Original Dining Room Color - the blue was almost electric meaning that you felt like you needed sun glasses because it was so bright!

New Improved Dining Room Suite! The green looks better when not right beside the blue of old. It really looks like it goes better with the other wall colors in the house when looking from one room into the other. I like it.

The old florescent green bedroom. Again you needed eye protection!

The new "sugar cookie" colored bedroom. It is much nicer on the eyes and is my knitting supply room (every girl needs one of those) and work out room. So far I've only tested the supply part of the equation. But that treadmill is doing it's best to stare me down!


The old glory - red, white, and blue Nascar bedroom.

The new improved "denim blue" bedroom. I got to use the quilt that my mom and I made when I was high school with squares cut out of jeans. I think it goes really well in the room. Also I think that the windows look huge without the curtains. But I am tempted to put the others back up because actually they would go.

George Update: George loves his new home - but he what he really loves is the yard. I know that they say that cats don't need to go outside - but George definitely does not fit that mold! He loves, loves, loves the outside and when he gets it in his head that he needs out - he doesn't care if we are eating, watching tv, working on unpacking - whatever. He needs to go out and crys and crys and crys, etc. The back door has windows to the floor so that he can look out and see where he wants to be. Here is where we find George whenever we are looking for him - the back door:

And here is what George is normally doing while he is at the back door:

That is George crying - he is not yawning or doing anything that could be misunderstood for anything that is quiet!

So when we finally let him outside - he never stops. He walks and jogs the whole yard!! It is not relaxing to anyone but George! Take a look for yourself:

George on the patio (notice he's walking)

George on the pool deck - he's joggin here!

George on the pool deck - taking a lap around the pool!

George saw me and thought that he'd come my way for a quick visit before he had to go again!

George in the yard - he wants to go under those trees because he's sure that he saw a robin go under there!
So as to not lose our sanity or George there was only one thing to do. George needed a coop and that's exactly what he got. We originally bought some garden fencing thinking that we could move it about the yard because all it takes to put up is the forks into the ground. That didn't last long. We put it up and George walked right through the bars (when was George working out to get so skinny? The last time I saw him he was eating his treats like he was starving. Hmmmmm - maybe I should see how he is doing it to see if it would work for me.) So back to Home Depot we went. So what the coop is now made of is chicken wire (of course if it works for all us chickens...) and zip strips and the garden fencing as a frame. I had it too close to the pool stairs - which George was more than happy to show me as he jumped over his coop to the third stair and very effectively left his coop behind.

Take a look at how high of a jump that is for a 18 year old cat! George could be in the geriatric cat Olympics!
One thing George is not is tricky, but he is an escape artist! (George would have given the guards at Alcatraz a run for their money). He would immediately search for weaknesses in the coop and escaped several times before we were victorious in keeping him in the coop. Well at least for now. I have seen him digging at one edge when he didn't think I'm looking. It's only a matter of time before we'll have to reposition the coop. At least he is keeping us on our toes. Here is George in his coop:

I'm pretty sure that he's standing back look for weaknesses in the defenses. Don't worry George will be free before long!