My cousin Merrilu, recently moved from Ohio to North Carolina. I’m happy that she’ll be closer because we don’t get to see each other too often. She reads the KittyBunnyChicken and decided that Tammy needed to join her home. She already has two brain-damaged animals so what’s one more?

Miss Daisy has the crazy look in her eyes, but Merrilu assures me she is a gentle goofball.

Mr. Sailor has a broken/crooked tail so he and Tammy will have physical deformities in common. Her janky ears will fit right into this family.

My cousin and I were joined at the hip in high school. I never met her until 9th grade when she moved to Mississippi from years of living in yankee-land. She stayed at our house so much that my dad started asking her for money at the breakfast table. She never paid up.

We were born only two weeks apart and I always enjoy calling her on her birthday to remind her she’s older than me.

I hatched a plan to meet halfway between our homes for a sleepover and furry prisoner exchange. So we met in a hotel in Greenville SC, went out to dinner, talked about the olden days, and played with our insane kitten.

Can I bwing Pink Tiger?

Tammy is going to live with Merrilu’s son Sam. I call him Edward G. after a 1940s actor who starred in a lot of gangster films. (He looked just like him in his baby pics.) Happily he grew into a very handsome old young man.

OK kid, I’m the boss around here now see?!?

Merrilu’s hubby Jeff is already enjoying the benefits of having a technology assistant on hand 24/7.

I know PAW-er Point!

It sure is quiet around here without her. For some reason, the other cats do not seem to miss her. I know Tammy hit the jackpot with my cousin/friend Merrilu and will have a long happy life with her human and animal family. Thanks pal. Love you much. Deb

Tammy & her Mammy. 🙂

OK, so last week I made a snarky comment about shiplap and the ubiquitous barn door.  I should explain…

I LIKE shiplap and I think the interior barn door is not only cute, but a useful design for some homes. Just not mine. You see, if it’s popular and everyone is doing it, I’m probably not going to go for it.  If I have to choose between popular or odd, I’m usually going to go for the odd. For instance the “linoleum” tile in the laundry room and closet. Nobody wants that! But I do. I think it’s weird and retro and cute. Also, we also have NO canned/recessed lights in our house. I have never liked overhead lighting, plus it I wanted my house to look old fashioned. My Memaw & Papa had never even HEARD of recessed lighting. We desired a wood burning fireplace. Who wants one of those these days? There are other things but I’ll stop now.

If you want to call me a “reverse snob” you might be justified. But if you have shiplap and barn doors on every available wall in your house, and if you love the look, then I’m very happy for you. You probably think my kitchen looks like the interior of a circus tent and you’d be right about that too. 🙂

Now for a funny story. After my blog post regarding the above, I attended an open house given by my friends Marcie & Bill. These two are an amazing and talented team of designers and home-flippers extraordinaire! I was excited to see their latest project in a mid-town Montgomery neighborhood. After I knocked, My friend Marcie flung open the door and gleefully informed me that she not only had shiplap, but a barn door too! I deserved that! I smacked my head as she led me to the kitchen to see her creation.

Just lovely

In the future I’ll be more careful about sharing my opinions. I have NO decorating or design training. Jim and I are just flying by the seat of our pants and having fun.

Now for kitty stuff…

Jim is off Ukraine today for a week. He’s going with a team from the US to help their Air Force get back on track. Tammy helped him pack.

Maybe if I’m weely quiet, he’ll accidentally pack me and I can go with him.

And tomorrow Tammy goes to meet her new mommy! Details on this later, but rest assured this little creature is going to have a fun, happy life in Raleigh NC.

Bye Bye sweet Tammy 😦

Sorry Joanna, I’m very sick of that word. And don’t get me started with the interior “barn door”!

One of Chris’s crew call this “lapping”. I’m fine with that.

So our carport is next to our neighbor’s carport and under storage. I don’t want to look at that and I’m sure they don’t want to look at our cars, so this is a good solution to fix that problem. Plus it will make the back porch more private.  The houses in our hood are all very close together and ours is especially so, since we got a variance to build up to the property line.

View from the back porch. There will be a privacy fence across the open area, so even WE don’t have to look at our cars.

We put some boards on the side of the golf cart bay too. These will be painted white and the shed will be green with white trim. The shed door will be red like the front door.

I got very excited to see the AC units installed this week!

Then I got very “unexcited” to learn that they’re useless until the electrician gets back out here to hook up power to them. 😦

The bird family has left the chimney, so we cleaned up the poop and are ready to install this pretty copper chimney cap.

The cap will eventually turn dark green.

Two of my favorite peeps on our building team are these two ladies. They arrive about once a week to clean up the debris in the yard and spiff up the interior of the house. They work super hard and are both animal lovers so we always have a lot to talk about.

Kat & Janet

Janet has been working with GT for fourteen years this week! Happy Anniversary girl!

And in the never-ending battle to control water flow on our lot, we had even more pipes installed in the yard to connect with the French drain.

Thanks John!

We will have catch basins in three areas of the yard which will eliminate the need for gutters. I’m not a fan of the “gutter” look and Jim devised this evil plan to make me happy. Yes, I know I don’t deserve him. Shut up!

Another great title for the books! 🙂 So here is the Kitten stuff…

I smell like cookies

I found a forever home for this baby and she’ll be making her journy north next week. Details in another post, but trust me, Tammy is going to live with a very nice lady who is almost as crazy as she is!

Jim will miss his little study buddy.

I don’t think she smells like cookies.

And I could not resist including a picture of our diva kitty relaxing on the porch.

Not very lady like Rowdy!

On to the house stuff…

We have bird poop in our fireplace!

A mama bird has made a nest inside the chimney. We have a lovely copper chimney pot to put on top but we have to wait for this little family to vacate. After they’re gone, no critters will be able to get back in.

Another un-lovely picture for you.

No this is not the Home Depot Warehouse.

As if the Pink House were not crowded enough with four fat cats, two humans and one tiny little terror, we’ve been storing our stuff for the new house in the living room…and on the back porch, and in the carport, and in the bedroom.  Since the pantry is basically finished we put a lot of this in there to get it out of the way. Jim put locks on exterior doors so the boxes don’t “walk away”.

Jim finished the floor of the closet at the top of the stairs and it looks great.

Poor baby. I really should pay him more.

Pretty right?

Big things happening this week! Air conditioning, landscaping, more plumbing and finishing the storage room/carport! Woo Hoo! Homestretch!

Tama taught me that word. But I think she got it from Archie Bunker.

Don’t worry, there WILL be a shutter on this window!

This is the upstairs potty room. Just inside the door are shelves for essentials…books, TP and a place for Mulder to sit. He enjoys potty time with Daddy. If you tell Jim I said this I will deny it.

Love this downstairs bathroom so much! We were going for a 40s vibe. The bead board is so pretty.

I was home all week visiting my parents so when I got back they had done so much new stuff!

Bill, Peg and her favorite child, Taco. 🙂

So here’s all the goodies!!!

Stairs!

More stairs!

Carport shed!

Pantry door!

Laundry room floor!

OK I call this linoleum tile, but that’s not really what it is. It’s commercial vinyl tile we ordered from Home Depot. The official name is Vinyl Composition Tile (VCT) The store stocks the boring colors (white, tan, black) but if you search the site for the commercial stuff they have about 50 different colors to choose from. We thought this burgundy/white combo would look great next to our bathroom floor. AND IT DOES! The laundry is directly off the bathroom with no door. Just the door frame so we wanted something fun to look at since we would always see it. Want to know the best part? Jim installed it. 🙂 He looked at a couple of YouTube videos and voila! Jim is not just a trophy husband. The boy can do stuff!

We are aware that it’s weird to have “linoleum” in a modern day house, but we think it’s funny, strange, unusual, and surprisingly pretty. We’re also going to have a large closet done with some green stuff. Stay tuned.

Now for the Tammy news…

She grew a foot while I was gone! Well, it seemed like it.

Not quite a foot, but jeeze!

Jim had to cut a little notch in her litter box entrance for her tummy.

Mulder still can’t get in though.

She’s a happy, sweet little hellion who torments Mulder day and night. Plus she has a new favorite pastime to keep her busy.

🙂

See, I told you I had run out of titles. 🙂

So here are some of the updates on the Green House.

All of the closet shelving is completed and I love how Bobby came up with some creative solutions for the slanted ceiling.

The fireplace is completed except for the mantle. The hearth is made from slate tiles. Zoom in to see how the tile guy managed to put all the colors together. I love this. I wasn’t here when he was doing this or I would have driven him crazy with my “suggestions”. He got lucky on this day.

I think the slate looks good with the brick too.

The wood floors are done except for sanding and staining.

Looking into the sitting room from the bedroom.

Looking into the office from the living room. I love how the boards change direction in each room.

The kitchen is coming together nicely. We did a pretty good job of matching all the wild colors.

More on the mural next time.

Pantry door finally arrived. I love the smokey glass.

We found some crazy Spanish tiles online and decided to install them on the back of the island bar just for fun. No, they have no meaning, and they don’t even really match, but they make us smile.

See the DAY OF THE DEAD (Mexican Holiday) skull fourth from the left? The lizard? Well we just love lizards. 🙂

A wooden bar will be built on top of this with stools for guests to watch the master chef (Jim) cook in this crazy kitchen. No one will ever hire us as decorators. That’s for sure. The house is not “tasteful” by regular standards, but a couple of people have called it “cheerful” and “happy”. I can’t think of a better compliment.

With all the construction going on, we’ve piled lights, plumbing fixtures, ceiling fans etc. all over the Pink House inside and out. If you visit us there you will feel like you’ve walked into a tiny Home Depot. Rowdy discovered this little mirror today and enjoyed looking at the BEAUTIFUL new kitty in the house.

Das one pretty kitty for sure!

Oh Wowdy. 🙂

It is a universal law of physics that kittens attract little girls. Tammy is no exception. Two of my neighbors came over to meet my sweet foster kitten and a good time was had by all.

Kitten Smitten

Miss Chapel & Miss Maryn had a really fun time chasing Miss Tammy and talking baby talk to her.

Tammy even found a way to play hide and seek with the girls. 🙂

Tammy has assimilated into the Burlingame family. Tony only occasionally hisses at her and the fat lady cats tolerate her presence.

Look Mommy! Sammy is letting me drink from the Big Kitty bowl!

I managed to solve one annoying problem this week that only foster kitten parents can relate to. Tammy has her own litter box in the bathroom because I don’t want her to have to use the one for the big kids. Her poops are tiny and cute (trust me) and the grown up kittes…are not! I like to keep hers separate but that is a problem with the other cats discover the new box and think “Oh GREAT I can have a choice for my pooping pleasure!” Sooooo…I invented a trick to thwart the unwanted invaders by taping a piece of cardboard across the opening that leaves only a tiny entrance at the bottom for a small kitten. Plus I put a warning sign on it for good measure.

Now if I can just teach Mulder to read.

Now comes the shameless begging. SOMEONE PLEASE STEP UP AND GIVE THIS KITTY A FOREVER HOME! Two possible options have fallen through. I have two more possibilities but I’m still hoping to find her a home in our neighborhood so I can watch her grow up. This is a very, very special kitten and she has carved a place in our hearts like no other foster baby we’ve ever had. I mean, just LOOK at her!

PWEASE adopt me!

Hey, I’ll even throw in the pink tiger!