Here's the star of the family, Guinness the dog who saved us from our house fire last year! I see him as absolutely adorable with a mush face but most (for some strange reason) see him as a scary dog!
So I will briefly tell you about the lovely 2007 we had as a family (Me, Mike, his girlfriend Darina and Guin). We moved from Darien CT (the most pretentious, obnoxious, self absorbed, judgmental place I have ever been. Where how you dress, where your from, how much money you make, what you drive and who you know makes the person) to Nyack NY. Nyack is a beautiful, artsy river town located 20 miles north of NYC on the hudson river. I used to drive from the Bronx when I was young and look at houses telling myself I would live in Nyack one day and now I do!
CT was a major mistake, my sister and her husband lived there which is why I tried it (they don't live there anymore). I am not going to get into the whole experience of Darien CT today, but I will tell you my son was arrested (for attending a house party with 300 of Dariens finest children (at least in their prescriptive drugged parents minds), my house was raided by 16 policemen in 7 police cars. My son was also arrested for riding his dirtbike. I was continually followed by police cars, my house was always watched and going to the grocery store in my sweatpants and baseball cap with no makeup was like attending a yankee game and standing on the pitchers mound in my underwear! The neighbors were horrified!!!! Good riddens to you Darien, may you all continue to pretend to live perfect lives while hitting up the medicine cabinet with your children!
Anyway, my son, Darina and I (with our Guin) moved into our 1966 contemporary with hudson river views in February of 2006. I had a vision!!!! We all looked beyond the red, white and blue shag carpeting, linoleum kitchen floors, pink and blue bathrooms and a painted white wrought iron banister and saw a diamond in the rough. Everyone nicknamed the house "The Brady Bunch House". Many nights I would wake my son up holding a sledge hammer telling him another wall had to come down. We ripped out the kitchen ourselves as our neighbors watched us in our pj's laughing our asses off trying to carry pieces of the kitchen that weighed more then me into the dumpster (one of 6 dumpsters in 7 months). One night I decided we could re-do the copper pipes under the kitchen sink and install the new faucet without the help of a real plumber. What the hell, if you can read instructions what's the big deal. I went and bought the kit with the soldering gun, flux, sandpaper, the whole nine yards. Of course it was the middle of the winter and we had to shut the water off which meant no heat until we fixed the pipes. We thought the more solder you put onto a copper pipe the better the fitting. Every time Michael went into the basement to turn the water back on, water shot up through the connections on the pipes. I was up in the kitchen screaming "shut the water off" as I got soaked along with the kitchen floor. We would then run to the fireplace, get warm and then back to soldering. This went on from around 7pm until 2 in the morning. I finally got online and read everything there was on copper pipes and plumbing. I can flux, sand and solder my way through any copper pipe these days! We worked like dogs, had so many laughs and I have so many tips for designs that are creative, look gorgeous and cost little. I will try to post some before and after photos if I can find them and also give tips along the way.
My mother is here at the office and is hungry and wants to go out to dinner now so I have to sign off and will continue writing later. Sorry but when mother wants food and a jug of wine we go.
