E-Six Expansion

"E-Six Flea Market Style" has expanded! It took a lot of work and there are still a couple things that we want to do to it, but for the most part it is done.

Last week was spent coming up with a design and then a plan. First in my head and then somewhat on paper. Then a trip to Lowe's for 18 - 4"x4"x8' posts...because 18 is how many the design in my head said we would need. I was questioning that number when we were loading all those heavy posts onto a cart, then loading them into Ty's truck and then unloading them at our house! (Thanks Ty for letting us use your truck)

The week also included a couple more trips to Lowe's for every kind of fastener and hanger we thought we may need and one evening spent cutting some of the posts into 14 braces.  

During this time I was also trying to get a couple more furniture items finish so we would have something to put in the booth when we were done!  Sorry, I didn't take "Before" pictures...

This next picture is closer to the actual color of the cabinet...

This was all leading up to Saturday...the big install day. I can't go any further without saying how grateful I was that Lisa and Ty were able to help us that day. There is no way John and I could have done it without their help. The entire time we were there I kept thanking them.

(Was I holding the post, or leaning on the post??)

Lisa didn't put her purse down the entire time! :)

We had to leave at 6:30 pm. We weren't anywhere near done, but the heavy and hardest part was done. So we packed up and headed across the street to Cock-A-Doodle Cafe to treat Lisa and Ty to a "Thank-You" dinner. 

The next morning John and I went back to work on the booth some more. (See, he is wearing a different shirt)...

One of my "ideas" was to hang some of the doors this time. I wanted the booth to resemble the old booth, but I also wanted to add a little "Urban Flare" to it. So we chose to let the hardware show on the posts and to use big hooks to hang the doors. 

We spent about 4 hours hanging doors and finishing up that day. Then Monday evening we ran electric to the booth and Tuesday evening we hauled over some furniture.

Today, I went and put some finishing touches on it.

We still want to hang some lights from the rafters and make a new sign for the other side of the booth. I'm sure we will make changes here and there, but for the most part it's done! 

Oh, in case you were wondering...we used all but one of those 18 posts. I always say, it is better to have one too many than to be one short!

Shiny and New!

Remember this?

If you don't, it is the $300 gift card I won last summer at a Silver Hawks game. While this card has been burning a hole in my husbands pocket for over a year now, I've been hanging onto it for an emergency.

The emergency happened last week....and we used it to help buy this...our brand new, shiny...and fingerprint free (for the moment) refrigerator!! Isn't it pretty!?!

The cabinet above it is the new one John and I had to buy and install after ripping out the old one because all the new fangled refrigerators wouldn't fit in our existing fridge opening...Ugh! At least the color was a pretty good match. (We still need to put the knobs on)

Lisa is convinced that fingerprints will drive me crazy, but I told her we are adults...we should be able to just use the handles. I guess we'll see how that goes!

"Freezer Meltdown = Family Meltdown"

A couple weeks ago we started having problems with the freezer side of our refrigerator. One day I noticed water dripping from the water/ice dispenser in the door.  I opened the freezer to find that all the ice cubes were melting and that half of the food had started thawing!  

Luckily we have a deep freezer downstairs so I quickly bagged up the food and carried it all downstairs.  I then emptied the ice holder thing and turned the freezer dial to the lowest position. Then I placed a dixie cup of water in the freezer and waited.  Later that day the water in the cup was frozen and the ice maker was making new ice.  John thought maybe the freezer door had been left slightly open and caused things to start thawing.  

I let a couple days go by with it working fine before I moved some of the food back into it. Then a couple days later I came home and found a puddle of water on the floor next to the fridge! I open the freezer door and found that the ice cubes were melting again and that the food was starting to thaw again!  

I unload the freezer again and a couple hours later I hear new ice cubes dropping into the holder!  I'm like what the H-E-Double toothpicks!?! (Not what I really said).  

John now thinks the compressor or something like that is getting hot and shutting off and then once it cools it starts working again...whatever. All I know is that I'm getting tired of cleaning up water off the floor, throwing food away and hauling food up and down the stairs.  

We thought about calling someone out to repair it, but we realized that we have had this fridge for 17 years and decided that we should just bit the bullet and get a new one. :)

This makes me happy for a couple of reasons. One, our kitchen is tiny and the fridge sticks out from the cabinets too far and this will be our chance to get a counter-depth refrigerator and two, we can get stainless to match our stove and microwave oven...Yippee!

So Saturday, after a long day of going to Estate Sales, John and I head out to look for a new fridge.  Our first stop was HH Greg because if you have forgotten, I won a $300 gift card from them last summer and I've been saving it for just such an occasion.

We enter the store and something that doesn't happen often...happened. Not only did we find a fridge that we both liked but we found 2 that we both liked.  We were ready to buy it right then and there, BUT we had forgot the gift card at home!  We didn't know it then, but this was the first in a long line of problems to come....

Saturday was the last day of the sale on the fridges so we needed to go home, get the card and drive back that day...not something that makes John very happy.  But we headed home, got the card and before we headed back, we took a quick measurement of the opening in the cabinets for our fridge...dun dun dun...both the refrigerators that we liked would not fit in that spot...they were too tall!  The one time that we both agree so quickly on something and then this happens. 

So we head back to HH Gregg and tell the guy who was helping us that it was a good thing we did have to go home because we found that what we were about to order wouldn't have fit.  So we tell him that we need a fridge that will fit in a space that is 36" wide and 68 1/2" tall. Well guess what, all the counter-depth side by side with ice/water in the door are all taller that 68 1/2 inches.  We left HH Gregg and went to 3 other stores only to find out the same thing.

Sooooo, today, Sunday, John and I spent the day carefully ripping out the cabinet and crown molding above our old fridge, buying a shorter cabinet and installing it and replacing the molding all to gain 3 additional inches of space so we can get a freaking refrigerator that works!  But we did it, we are done and tomorrow I can go buy it and get it scheduled for delivery this week.

After all the trauma I walk outside and see something red in the back corner of our yard.  I walk back there and see this...

I planted these 2 or 3 summers ago and they never grew, but today of all days they were growing and glowing a beautiful red from the sun. I had to walk out to them and admire them....and thank them for brightening my day with their beauty.  

So this will end up being a busy week for us because E-Six is expanding!! We decided to take the new, bigger space that had been offered to us, which means moving everything this week, so that it is all set up and going for Labor Day weekend. With speaking to Peter's wife, Dawn, she told me that she thinks I should keep my red doors and the look of my booth because they all like my booth. I told her that her husband was pretty adamant that there were no walls dividing my space from the woman's booth next to me.  Dawn was like...."What?? Peter doesn't know what he's talking about".  "He doesn't know anything about style". She told him this was my booth and I could make it however I wanted to....and Peter....well he was defeated just like that.  I'm going to try to make Peter happy, but keep my booths look and style too.

Wish me luck, it's going to be a long week, but I have a couple days of relaxing on the beach with my toes in the sand and a frozen drink in my hand to look forward to....can't wait!   

While John's Away..."

It is amazing how much you can get done when you can spend as much time as you want to working on something. 

John went to Pennsylvania for 3 days this week for work and I spent those days (and evenings) mainly working on furniture. I was able to finish several pieces. 

Before: 

After:

I forgot to take a before picture of this next one. It was a stained wood side table that was pretty scratched up, but was sturdy and I thought it was a steal at $3...

You might remember this next one from the picture of the garage sale finds I posted a couple weeks ago...

Before:

After: 

When John got home tonight, we loaded up and took them to E-Six. While we were there Peter (guy who runs the place) asked if we had time to speak to him.  He said that the vendor in his prime spot (front and center) was opening their own store (my dream) and that they were moving out.  He said he would like us to take that spot.  It is a much bigger area and because he wants us to take it, he is discounting the rent quite a bit. Sounds like a no brainer right?  Well, he has stipulations...he said he doesn't want any walls around the booth that goes in that spot. The people who had that space before didn't have walls and he liked how open it looked and he wants to keep it open.  The problem I have with it is that I like the red door walls in our booth. 

I like the look and I know people are already associating E-Six with that look.  If we move our booth I would like to keep that overall look and feel. I'm not sure I can do that without the red door walls. He wants us to let him know ASAP so I need to decide quickly. I think I will call him and talk about it some more.   

Lazy Sunday

I love Sundays that we spend just hanging out at home. We started the day by not starting the day....we slept in.  Once we were up, we weren't moving too quickly, but Luckie was having fun playing on a pile of tissue paper (she loves the crinkling noise it makes) and chasing John's belt...

                                              

After all that fun we moved ourselves outside on the deck. John reading the Sunday paper...

and I was soaking up some sunshine while Luckie was relaxing in the shade...

What could top off a day like this? A good meal cooked on the grill! And maybe a piece of Lisa's banana birthday cake later on!  

I love days like this! Hope yours was equally as good!

Her Birthday & Our Best Day!

26 years ago today, John and I had the best day of our lives....

Let me back up a bit. That day, 26 years ago, started out around 3:00 am for me. Waking up from slight pains in my stomach.  It wasn't until I realized that the pains were coming off and on every 10 mins, that I thought...THIS IS IT!!! OMG!!! I'm having a baby! Yikes!  

I reached over and nudged John and said "I think it is time"...can you believe I said it like that? But I remember it well because right after I said it the bed started shaking! That's right, after hearing me say "it was time", John started shaking so much that the whole bed started shaking!  It's funny now...well, it was also funny then, but I couldn't tell him that! 

The rest of that day is kind of a blur to me thank goodness!  I do know there was a lot of pain involved and a bit of puking, but there was also a lot of excitement! We were about to become parents!  We didn't find out the sex of the baby a head of time, so we also had the excitement of finding out if we would have a boy or girl.  You would also think we were having the "Royal Baby" with all the family members who were showing up at the hospital! Royal no, but this was going to be the first grandchild and niece or nephew for both sides of our family, so everyone was excited. 

Finally at 9:49 pm on August 10, 1987 John and I became parents to a beautiful baby girl, Lisa NiCole Werntz (now Miller) and it became the best day of our lives! 

Today is HER birthday, but our BEST day! And with that said...you can't have a birthday without cake...

Happy Birthday Lisa!! 

Welcome August!

I call August the "Hurry Up" month. It is our last full month of summer, so it makes me feel like I have to hurry up and pack in as much outdoor things as possible.  

I started off August by going to the Amish Acres Festival on Thursday (the first day of August). I go almost every year and it is normally so hot out, but this time it was an enjoyable 73 degrees.

Then, Thursday evening John and I went to our 3rd. Concert in the Park.

Friday, (the 2nd. day of Aug.) I got a visit from my Aunt Sharon and Uncle Larry from New Mexico. They came to my house with my mom and my Aunt Anna and Uncle Dick. We had a nice visit (outside on the deck) and it was good to see them all. This is a picture of the 3 sisters, Anna, my Mom & Sharon...

Today, Saturday, (yes, Aug. 3rd.) I spent most of the day going to garage sales and to an estate sale to get things for E-Six. This is some of what I came home with...

I have big plans for the round side table and the tall corner cabinet!  And if you were wondering...no, this wouldn't all fit in my car. I had to call John to come meet me with his truck! :) But I did get that tall cabinet in my car!

I spent the rest of the day painting some furniture out in the garage enjoying the breeze from the overhead door...and then John grilled some tasty burgers for dinner. 

I'm going to try to soak up every bit of sunshine and fresh air that I possibly can before we have to say good-bye to summer 2013.