Leaves + Wet Snow = Sad Panda

Yesterday was the first snow storm of the 2011-12 season and it was a wet one. (That sounds gross.)  This is Colorado and it is truly Coloradical here, so it was 80 degrees on Monday, 60 degrees on Tuesday and then snowed 6 inches on Wednesday.  What this means is that all the trees still have their beautiful fall leaves so the wet (read: heavy) snow did some damage.  Behold...

This branch fell off our tree in the backyard. It landed between the house and the gar-raj. Thank goodness it did not hit the house or poor Hendrix. It did, however, take down a power line. (Which I later touched - it was not live... but clearly I am idiot. (The I in this sentence is Jamie - Kristina would have known better.)) 

Not to be outdone, the tree in our front yard dropped a branch onto a car. The woman moved her car before we got home so we did not see the destruction - but apparently it busted all her windows and did some serious damage.  I can't wait for her to show up with an insurance claim so I can ask her why on earth she decided to park her car under a tree with large sagging branches after the news warned people that trees were going to break? 

Yeah, this branch was on a car.  The picture above and below are the same branch, different angles.

And on a happy note, Hendrix LOVED his first snow. He was going nuts.

If you look close you can see the snow on his nose. 

Steve (a.k.a. Jamie's dad) is coming over this afternoon with his chainsaw and we are going to cut those mother fu.... yikes, sorry about that.  We are going to move the branches like civilized adults. 

And Then There Were Three

No, one of us is not pregnant. But we do have a new member in the Kitzmmer family. We are happy to introduce Hendrix...

Hendrix as in Jimi Hendrix. We wanted a name that reminded us of Seattle and we always walked past the Jimi Hendrix statue on Capitol Hill... and it is a cool name. 


Hendrix is an Australian cattle dog mix. The mix is unknown, but clearly he is part awesome.  

 
  
We have been leaving him in the laundry room area during the day. Yesterday we decided that after one of us checks on him at lunch we will open the door to the backyard so he can roam around in the afternoon. (We have a door that locks between the laundry room and the kitchen so we don't have to worry about inviting the neighborhood into our house.)  When we got home from work last night we saw through the kitchen door window that Hendrix had pulled his bed onto the step so he could lounge in the sun.  I know, adorable. 

Free Advice!

Here is my free piece of advice to all who are interested: Do not wear a silk dress while riding your bike home during monsoon season.

Not my best decision.

Wash Nasty

I am no plumber, but I am fairly certain our dishwasher should not look like this...

I just threw up a little in my mouth, too. 


Really? Every appliance? Cool!

We're Moving On Up...

If you are anything like us, when you look at our house you wonder what lies behind that window off the attic above the front porch. And if you are anything like us your mind instantly decides that it must be a wondrous and magical space that will make a beautiful 2nd level to our adorable bungalow. 

You know you want to check out the attic. 

We have been jonesing to take a look at the attic space since we stepped foot into the house, but unfortunately the only opening is above our bathroom sink and only a small child could possibly fit through it. 

If you have two adult size shoulders, you are not fitting through that hole. 

We have mentioned our desire to turn the existing attic into livable space to almost everyone that visits our house, but we had no idea if was a feasible option. Steve, ever-the-realist, would occasionally attempt to burst our bubble by mentioning that there was a possibility that the roof was simply not high enough and that we would have to build up to make this dream a reality. What's that sound? Oh, right... the pitter-patter of rain on our parade. 

But don't cry for us, Argentina!  With the help of Steve and Casey, we recently broke in to our own attic... 

With the help of a maglite, screwdriver and a razor we were in!

Oh, the anticipation! Don't just sit there, come with me and I will show you what we found. 

Don't mind the creepy face, I promise I won't hurt you. 

Behold, an oasis of space!!! 

There is enough height and width to turn the attic into a second, quirky floor!  <squeal!>  The attic space spans the entire length of the house, complete with vents and pipes from the 1st floor bathroom. The portion over the living room has  been re-braced and the entire roof has been re-framed, so it is looking might fine up there. 

Even Steve was excited. That is saying something. 

We were too busy exploring and scheming possible layouts to snap many pictures, but I assure you there will be more to come in the future. Are you just dying? I know, us too!

If you happen to be a skilled carpenter and you love to work for pennies and beer, let us know. 

A River Runs Through It

You may recall Monday's post and that we installed a new _____________.  The new something is a faucet. Please, hold your applause until the end. 

We had a nice enough faucet on our kitchen sink, except it leaked. Boo to leaky faucets. We had a river of water that was snaking it's way from the faucet across the granite counter to the beautiful wood floors. This simply would not do. Nor was the ghetto tea towel with a clip cutting it. If you look closely you can see the water around the faucet. 

Nicht gut, freunde.  

So we called Steve over to help us out. While we want to be self sufficient ladies, we did not think our plumbing skills were up to par. 

Kristina and her trusty assistant, Steve (a.k.a. Jamie's dad)

Steve feeding the new faucet down to Kristina... 

That's teamwork! 

Don't you agree that the coloring of the new faucet is just lovely! It really ties the granite counter, stone back-splash and black farmhouse sink together. 

Ta-da!!!

Kristina "Vanna Whiting" her handy work. Looking good, looking real good! 

And now, applause! 

We've Got Mail

This past weekend was a big one for the Kitzmmers. We were busy ladies. Let's see, a bottle (plus) of wine and wood-fired pizza on Friday night. A 3.7 mile run Saturday morning, followed by installing a new _____________, replacing our mailbox, and exploring our _________________.  

I am sure you have already thought of 15 inappropriate things to insert in each blank (you can make that 16) but we'll be giving you the deets throughout the week.

In case you are wondering about the rest of our weekend, we had more pizza on Saturday with delicious craft beer (we love you, Hops & Pie!) with Kristina's co-worker and her family. We got the pizza with mashed potatoes. Hell to the yes.  We then meet Diane for beers and eventually Jamie and Diane made their way to the Music Bar where they closed that mother down. Sunday we had brunch, because that is what adults do, and then went for an 8 mile run. That is right, eight miles. Like Detriot, but without the rap battles.

But back to home improvements.  We had the monstrosity of a security mailbox pictured above. How much mail do you have to receive to necessitate a mailbox of that size?  (I don't even own a gun, let alone many guns that would necessitate an entire rack.)  

You have eyes so you can see that it is also ugly.

Let's not forget that it was not even remotely secure. I am not expert, but something tells me that you should not be able to remove the top from your security mailbox. 


So we tore that mother down. (It is just a phrase I am trying out these days, don't worry about it.)  

Holy disgusting, Batman.  There may have been small woodland creatures hibernating behind the mailbox. 

Now we have a new mailbox that is slightly more attractive. It even has a lock in it, but we don't plan to use it. Not so much because we are trusting and believe in the good of people, but because we are lazy. But consider yourself warned: if you try to steal my Crate & Barrel catalogs, I will cut a bitch.