March 2008 Archives
Hey, Bill again. Fulfilling my promise to Alecia that I would post about all of the recent events. Although I'm betting, by now, that most of our immediate family already knows about this one.
A few weeks ago, Alecia and I were notified that we'd made it through the final level of approval to be featured on the show Designed to Sell. Our show will be shot in December (exact date TBD), and will probably air in 2009.
We got into this thanks to a friend from Alecia's mom's group. Apparently, this friend knows a realtor who just started working with the show. The realtor had mentioned that she needed homes in the Atlanta area to submit to the producers, and Alecia's friend mentioned ours. We've often told people of our plans to move in 2009, before Maddie begins school in the Fall, so her friend thought the timing and our house would work out well for the show. She hooked us up with the realtor, to whom Alecia submitted pictures of our family and of the house. The realtor then submitted these to the producers, who eventually called us for an interview. The interview happened in early February. I left work for a few hours and went home to join Alecia in a sit-down with one of the series' producers.
After the interview, we were fairly confident we were NOT going to get picked. The producer let us know several times that they were looking for diversity--both in the couples and in the houses. And Alecia and I are hardly examples of diversity. We're as white middle class as you can get. Our house isn't all that unique, either. It's a three-bedroom, two-bath ranch with EXACTLY the same exterior and floorplan as almost all of the homes in our neighborhood. Add in the fact that the girls wouldn't leave us (or this poor producer) alone, and I figured we'd never hear from her again. I was wrong.
It's exciting to get chosen for the show, but I'm mostly excited because the timing will work out so well. As Alecia will tell you, I wasn't so happy that she'd submitted us. I thought we'd be obligated to sell as soon as they did the makeover, and that it would probably happen this Spring. And we just aren't ready to sell (or buy a new house) right now. But we can be much more ready by December. We also found out there's no obligation, just opportunity. Homes are obviously made more sellable by the makeover, and also by the fact that they have an open house as part of the show. This open house will get more walkthroughs thanks to the fact that these people (and the house) will be on TV. But if it doesn't sell, even after all of that, it's no problem. The producers shoot two different endings while they have us. One states that the homeowners quickly sold the house, while the other optimistically states that it's still on the market, but with renewed interest. So their bases are covered, either way. And our obligation to them ends as soon as the show's in the can.
The way the show works is that they'll choose three rooms to renovate, with an eye on doing the most work for the least money and raising the value of the house as much as possible. They've hinted that they may do our master bedroom, a bathroom and our sun porch, but that may all change once the designers visit. All of the work they do will be free to us, but we will be responsible to pay taxes on the total value of the job. They usually end up claiming the work to be worth $5000-$6000, which is what we'd owe taxes on, but the actual value is worth much more since they get all supplies at cost and don't charge for labor at all. And even paying taxes on that won't be such a big deal. After all, we were already planning to use our 2009 tax check almost exclusively for home repairs. So if we get those same repairs cheaper and better, and pay from the same source, it all works out.
The most interesting thing to me is how the timeline for the shoot will work. The crew will pay us a visit on a Monday, a week before the shoot begins. At that time, the designers will take pictures and measurements and will decide exactly which spaces they can help. They'll then get the rest of that week to plan, purchase and make arrangements, while we're given some homework to do. The homework may involve moving furniture, taking things off walls, cleaning, etc. Basically getting ready for the work and camera crews to come in. Then, on the next Tuesday, the team returns to the house and begins working/filming. We were told that we won't be very involved with the actual work because while the pros are doing their thing, we'll be shooting our interviews and the B-roll footage that will be used throughout the show. On Friday, the open house will take place, and the whole thing will be over. One week for a three-room makeover and a full episode of the show.
We've been told that we can go ahead and sleep at the house every night during the production, even if they do our bedroom. But we've also been told that we'd need to put the dog somewhere else and also find a sitter for the kids for every day after they shoot the initial intro. So we're hoping Alecia's mom and/or sis can take both the kids and dog for the week. In truth, I'll probably still work much of the week--they only need us in short bursts every now and then--and Alecia will probably end up hanging out at Barnes & Noble quite a bit. But we want to make sure that when they do need us, we're not frantically trying to find someone to watch Maddie and Josie.
Anyway, that's all I know about the show and the process. And I've probably messed up some of the details already. We'll post more information once we have a time and date. Until then, feel free to check out HGTV's site for the show, and to watch a few episodes. Alecia has been Tivoing it for quite some time, so she can probably tell you which ones to look out for.
Has it really been that long since our last post? Time has flown by this past month and it doesn't look like it will be slowing down anytime soon. Here's a rundown of what's been keeping us busy:
- At the end of January, Bill had the chance to attend and work at the SAG Awards. He has lots of stories to tell about who he met and saw (Brangelina!) but I'll leave those for him to share. Unfortunately, that same weekend was the one where I got sick with whatever seems to be going around everywhere (it even plagued the American Idol contestants). I drove out to my mom's, who took great care of the kids while I just hung out. Of course, two weeks later the kids ended up getting the same thing, but they recovered pretty quickly.
Two city girls running around in a field.
- Maddie and Josie got the chance to attend our library's month-long Emerging Readers Program. Once a week they would go in the evening and read books and do crafts related to short vowel sounds and such. Have I mentioned how great our library is? That, and our Community Center programs (ballet, etc.) are some of the reasons we love living in Smyrna so much. Our librarian is always amazed to watch the girls when they do art projects -- they are incredibly meticulous and spend a long time on each part of it, making sure things are in perfect places. While most kids are finished in a few minutes, Maddie and Josie are always the last ones to leave story time. They are very detail-oriented kids.
- Bill was off work for MLK Day so we headed to Mt. Kennesaw to do some hiking. It has alternated between being gorgeous out, and horrible thunderstorms, and then snow. Last week it was literally 70 degrees one day, then snowing and 30 degrees two days later. Anyway, the girls did a great job hiking both up the mountain and back, not needing to be held. The funniest part of the day was hearing Josie cry out, "Whoa!" every time she would stand and then jump off a rock. I'll post video soon, but you have to imagine how Joey Lawrence said "whoa" on Blossom, and you get the idea. She'd say it on every.single.rock. No lie. Then Maddie started up, but hers sounded more like Keanu Reeves from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. "Whoooooooaaaaaa."
Whooooaa! Whoa!
- We did some more hiking a few two weeks ago at Sweetwater Creek. It's a park created around an old mill that was destroyed during the Civil War. Some parts of the trail were pretty tricky, especially near the water, but the girls did pretty well. Unfortunately they needed to be carried back -- Bill and I carried them on our shoulders and ended up with extremely sore and cramped necks afterwards. These kids aren't as light as they used to be.
- We neglected to post about it, but our nephew Drew celebrated a birthday at the beginning of this month. Happy (Belated) Birthday, Drew! (I had to keep myself from calling him "Drewbie," realizing he's probably too old for that now.) :(
- As for Bill, he has been most excited lately about our new Wii. The girls got the Disney Princess and Diego games for it as well, and they absolutely love it. It's hilarious to see them playing it. Even Josie gets really into it and can work the controls well.
- Soccer season has begun for the girls. Both Maddie and Josie are on the Dragons team this year with Coach Carter. Maddie just missed the cutoff date for the older team, so she's on the team with the younger siblings of the kids she played with last season. The good thing is that she's like the superstar of the team, with no fear. We've actually had to discuss that she not use her elbows so much to keep the other kids away from the ball. She's knocked more than one little boy down in her quest for a goal. Josie is doing great as well. She's right out there, kicking the ball and keeping up as best she can. She's not exactly the fastest runner. In fact, her running speed and her walking speed are pretty much the same. She's the last one in the pack when they warm up during practice, but she's having fun and loves the attention more than anything. Each morning before practice or a game, she'll come up to me and say, "Mommy, you have to stand on the side and say 'Go, Josie!!' Don't forget." She stops midway through the game to smile and give us the thumbs up sign. Maddie has been really sweet with her as well, even setting the ball up for her so she can kick it and make a goal. A very sweet big sister.
Go, Dragons!
- This week the girls and I had a nice little Mommy/Daughter day. First we visited a local store that was featuring an Easter petting zoo on its sidewalk. The girls got the chance to see real donkeys, goats, a rooster, bunnies, a pig, and a sheep and her lambs. After that, we headed to the mall to meet the Easter Bunny. Neither of the girls were scared of him (though I was. He was a little creepy.) Afterwards we went to the American Girl store for the first time. They looked at all the dolls and then we had a nice dessert in the cafe. If you've never been, the cafe has highchairs for the dolls and even give them little menus. The girls loved it and we talked about how they cold bring their babies to eat there next time.
The Easter Bunny's got nothing on these guys.
- Maddie and Josie are still active in ballet as well. They're preparing for their upcoming recital in April. This year they'll be performing on stage at the Smyrna Jonquil Festival. Hopefully, Grandma and Grandpa will be able to see them as well. They're going to have lots of fans in the audience, so Josie will be especially happy. :) I won't give anything away, except to say that their costumes are absolutely adorable. We'll definitely be taking lots of pictures.
And I think that's it. Or it seems so. This is the longest post I've written in a while, but at least now everyone is caught up with what we've been doing the past month or so. As you can see, it's been a busy one. The following months will be just as busy with one of my old friends visiting, Easter in Alabama, a trip to Florida for a bachelorette party, the girls' recital, the "My Little Pony Live" show, and a nice relaxing vacation for Bill and I on our anniversary. Ahhhh. Did I forget anything, Bill?
This post is way late, but the story's still pretty funny. And Alecia's really been after me to post more, since the last 146 posts have all been from her. Yes, my wife is urging me to spend more time in front of the computer. I just wanted to put that on the public record, as I'm sure it will be worth something later.
Anyway, my 36th (!) birthday was a few weeks ago, as mentioned in the post below. It was a Tuesday, which meant the kids had soccer practice that evening, and we didn't really make any plans to celebrate or anything. Alecia and I agreed a few years ago that we would no longer buy each other birthday gifts, but would instead give each other experiences (e.g. the trip to Iceland for Alecia's 30th last June). And since we were still paying off Christmas debt and waiting for tax and bonus checks, we agreed to hold off on my "birthday experience" for a few weeks. Instead, Alecia and the girls planned to surprise me that evening with a made-from-scratch cake.
Alecia knows I'm a big Captain America fan (hey, I never try to pretend I'm not a geek), so she had the cool idea to bake me a cake in the shape of Captain America's shield. She and the girls worked all day on it, making the cake and frosting from scratch, decorating it themselves, etc. It took them long enough that Alecia was never able to start on dinner, but it turned out beautifully, as you can see here:
Click for larger version.
Because of the girls' soccer practice, I went straight to the field after work, and then we went home afterward for dinner and cake. The girls were so excited to show me what they'd been working on, and I got to see it as soon as I got home. See it, but not taste it, since we hadn't had dinner, yet. To remedy that, Alecia started whipping up some real food in the kitchen while the girls and I hovered over the cake, drooling and eager to dive in. While she was working on dinner, Alecia kept complaining that something smelled like gasoline. I normally don't smell things until people point them out to me, but I could also pick up on the odor. The entire kitchen smelled a bit like gas or some other fuel. We have an electric range, so we knew it wasn't that. We both went around the kitchen with our noses low, like bloodhounds, trying to pick up on the source of the smell.
Finally, we figured out where it was coming from. In the sink were the bowls that Alecia had used to hold the blue and red frosting for the cake. They both smelled strongly. We soon realized that the cake did, as well. Alecia pulled the cake away from the kids' reach (they'd been very good and hadn't yet stuck even a fingertip in for a taste), while we tried to figure out why the cake would smell like it did. I asked Alecia what was in the frosting, and she listed the harmless ingredients. As soon as she mentioned the red and blue food coloring, though, she got a weird look on her face. She dug into the cabinet and pulled out little red and blue bottles...of candle dye.
"Oh my god!" she shouted, reading the warning labels on the little plastic bottles that were eerily similar to the size and shape of normal food coloring. "I almost killed us all!!"
I had bought the candle dye last year when I was experimenting with making homemade lava lamps (again, I admit to my geekiness). She tried to ask me why I'd put it up in the cabinet with the safe food coloring, but quickly realized it wasn't me who did so. Both of us clearly remembered her constantly nagging me to put away the candle wax and other ingredients after my last failed experiment, and both of us remembered me not doing it. She'd put everything away, for some reason putting the dyes in the kitchen cabinet rather than in the hall closet, where I normally keep them.
Alecia, of course, was upset about the whole thing. She was freaked out that we'd all almost been poisoned, but I think part of her was also mad that we had to throw the cake out. Once we were sure nobody had taken even a bite, however, I thought it was one of the funniest things that's happened to us in recent years. And getting my stomach pumped on my birthday, side-by-side with the rest of my family, would definitely have been a unique "birthday experience," right?
The only regret I have about the whole experience is that I still haven't had any cake and ice cream for my birthday, or blown out any candles. But I hope to remedy that soon, as we're still planning a birthday dinner with my brother and friends at some point.
By the way, this is a bit of a tangent, but I wanted to thank my mom for also contributing to my Captain America fetish by getting me a Cap bank for my birthday. It's the first actual birthday gift I've gotten in years from anyone but Alecia and the kids (though my parents and others have been very generous in sending cards and money, and my brother has often treated me to dinner or other events). It was cool to get something personal and thoughtful like that, and I really appreciated it. That, along with the near-fatal cake, made for a very memorable day.
