Preliminary House Pictures

Here are the pictures I managed to get this  monstrous program to create, in about 45 minutes per picture. Needless to say, they're going to be few and far between at THIS quality! Regular 3-D (not enhanced for realism) is much faster.

To start with... the floorplan as it currently is now...

Living Room, view 1

Living Room, view 2

Kitchen, view 1

Day 134: January 8, 2010

Quote of the Day: "Happiness is not a matter of events, it depends upon the tides of the mind." -Alice Meynell

Can you believe this? The damn heater is broken now! What ELSE could we possibly have go wrong while Ron is gone? I knew it was getting cold in the house lately, but since I had just adjusted the thermostat down to save money on the electricity I thought it was because of that.  But I turned the heat up last night before going to bed, and when I got up this morning it was 55 degrees in the house. 55!!!! And the heater was blowing full force! So I got up onto a chair and stuck my hand next to a vent, and the air coming out was ice cold. As in REAL cold. Go figure. So I lit a fire, hung a sheet over the living room door, and moved my desktop and laptop into the living room and have been in here ever since. And ran the self-clean feature on the oven. And did some laundry.  I now have proof that we desperately need new windows asap, though... I could stand in the middle of every room in the house and feel a cold breeze on me, with the air completely off and no ceiling fans going.  These windows are useless, which is why our electric bills are so outrageous here. 

I called the heater in to our home warranty program, but everyone was booked for today, so tomorrow is the earliest that anyone can come out to fix it. I'm really hoping it's something  they don't have to order a part for, or anything, because it is flipping COLD.  Of course it had to break during the absolute coldest days of the year. Go figure, again.  Oh, but it does do ONE good thing... it makes it to where I was able to take the picture of the three kitties all bundled up together on a blanket on the couch. A sight you very rarely see.

As a result of my seclusion, I've gotten a lot done on the computer program. I think it's turning out really well, but then again... I've had to try a lot harder because of the fact that my fingers were getting so cold that they didn't really want to work. It's turning out really great, if you ask me. I'm saving my favorite part of the house for later, but in a few minutes I will post some pictures of what I have done so far. They will be of the great room, kitchen, and dining area. The program doesn't have the best choices for materials or furniture, but it's enough to give you a general idea of the place, right? Who knows, maybe someday I can see it or something similar with real furniture in it... something in my own taste, perhaps!

Tomorrow my whole plan is to wait for the people who are going to come and fix my heater. I'm going to have to keep putting wood on the fire tonight if I want it to stay warm in this room, so I don't know how much sleep I'll actually get tonight. Unless I just let it go and try to play catch-up in the morning. I am really tired, so I'm not sure that I'm willing to get up every hour and put more wood on... I think if I just try and put a couple of big logs on there I may be able to stretch it out a little bit. Maybe? I sure hope so, because I am really, really tired from staying up super late the past couple nights at the computer. I'll have to set an alarm to even get up, as a matter of fact. It's not good for my weight loss to not sleep, either, because every time I start to get a messed up sleep pattern my weight loss plateaus. Sigh.  Oh, well, I'm still getting there, even with all the setbacks. Just have to learn some more patience.  And tomorrow is picture day... that should be interesting with all this cold air in here! EVERYONE wants to be in a bikini in this cold, right? :)

Look who decided to go lay in front of the fireplace for warmth!

Day 133: January 7, 2010

Quote of the Day: "We only part to meet again." ~John Gay

What a darn cold day!!! BRR!!! My house has been staying between 59 and 61 degrees.  The boys were complaining tonight about being cold and their "hands being frozen", so I turned the heater up to 70.  And it's still cold as heck in here! It just will not get warm. Then again, I only turned it up an hour ago. I should have lit a fire, but no one was in the living room, and I've been cooped up in my office on the desktop working with my home design program.  What's really funny is that yesterday, when I installed the program, I kept getting mad at myself wondering how I could have forgotten how to do all the really cool options and such that I know are in the program somewhere, but could not find them under any of the tabs.  So today, as I'm trying to do a curved wall, it hits me.... I installed the Old-Old version, and not my New-Old version!  What a dunce!!! Oh, well... installed the new-old version and have been going at it like a pro ever since.  It's a great program, and it makes it so easy to plan things out.  It's the one we used when we built our add-on to the Westwood house to plan out the add-on.  It lets you figure out where to put doors, windows, floor joists... you're basically building a house from the ground up, including plumbing, electric, A/C, water heaters, and anything you can imagine. I LOVE IT!!!! And it's highly addicting, so time passes almost without your even realizing it!

Ron sent me some pictures of some house designs to put into the program and see how they turn out, which is what I have been working on for the last two days. It's really great how well he can draw using Paint, because me personally... I have never been able to make it do some of the great things he does with it. He's like a pro... it's sickening! LOL  Anyways, here are his house drawings for future reference...

I'm still working on the first house, and haven't even started on the second one yet.  The hard part is that I have to try and get everything to work out so that they will look good as a flat-roof adobe-style house, which is what we have been talking about.  That means figuring out what wall heights will work where, and all SORTS of stuff! UGH! I made some changes to it, so that's why it's taking so long. But in the grand scheme of things, I think they're good changes.  Tomorrow I'm going to put some living room/kitchen pictures on here to get started. I should be able to put some more on there once I get some more rooms a little more done. I haven't added very much to it yet, but you'll get the idea.

I'm hoping the house doesn't get TOO cold overnight, but we'll see. Even cranking the heat up didn't help, the house is still at 60 degrees, three hours after I turned it up. So.... on with the electric blanket! The mornings are awful when it comes time to weigh myself now, I absolutely hate it.  But it's a necessary evil, and sometimes my weight is even down, which makes it worthwhile!  HA! HA! HA!  Anyways, I'm going to do just a little more on the computer, and then it's off to bed I go.

Day 132: January 6, 2010

Quote of the Day: "I need a hug from you – and only the way you can give it." – Gayle Lapekas

I guess I'd better sit down and write the blog, because it's almost eleven and I didn't even realize it. That's okay, though, that's what I have my dearest hubby for... to email and ask me if I'm still up or whether I forgot the blog again.  Gee, am I getting a reputation here, or is it just me? HAHAHA  Nah, it's all good... I know he just misses picking on me on my everyday blond moments. Like tonight, I left my car keys on the counter at the 7-11 without realizing it, and had to go back in and get them- after searching all my pockets and my  purse... three times.  You just can't get more entertaining than ME, let me tell you.  And if I'm not doing something really stupid, then I'm getting all tongue-tied because my mouth can't move as fast as my brain thinks, so there's always that to laugh at.  I guess I'm just a barrel of fun!

I got myself all wrapped up in my 3-D home design program making this house that Ron drew up. It's a very time-consuming  project, so it's really good on the days when you are super-bored and have nothing to do.  Unfortunately, though, I think it measures square footage wrong or something, because it keeps saying that the house is over 5,000 sq feet, not even including the basement. Ron said he estimated it should be right around 3,000. So I have no idea what else I can do to fix it, but I'm going to keep trying.  If I can't fix it, it can't be fixed. Or I'll just ask Ron for help. What can I say, it keeps me sane.


Both the kids are home tonight, amazingly. Which is good, because they're expecting us to have a low of 13 tonight, and I don't want to have to worry about where Damien is and what he's doing, whether he has eaten anything, is warm, etc.  He'll be right here where the house may not be as warm as I'd like it to be, but he has a roof over his head, his own bed, and lots and lots of blankets. FINALLY, I might sleep good tonight! HAHAHA  Cody went straight to Josh's house today after school so that he could go to church tonight, then I had to go pick him up at 9, and of course he came straight home and raided the fridge.  He has some chocolate pudding in there that he decided he wanted to buy with his birthday money, so he has been eating it a little here and there. I've warned him several times not to eat so much that he makes himself sick, so we'll see what happens.  It was a BIG can of it, too... one of those restaurant size cans... should take a normal person a month to eat. I give it less than a week!

Day 131: January 5, 2010

Quote of the Day: "Nothing limits achievement like small thinking. Nothing equals possibilities like unleashed thinking."  - William Arthur Ward

I know, I know... I forgot to blog yesterday. I guess it's because I had to make a last-minute run to JCPenney's and try to get there before they closed because there were these shoes that Cody just HAD to buy with his Christmas money, and then once I got home I painted for a while then fell into bed exhausted.
I did finish the quilt yesterday that I was making out of Ron's old military uniforms. It's nice and cozy, but only big enough to be a lap blanket, so it didn't take too long at all.  The hardest part of the whole thing was trying to NOT have the darn thread break in the middle of sewing. Which it did, of course. Repeatedly.
 

Today I got the swimming pool cleaned, and painted some, then re-installed my 3-D home design program and looked at some of the houses I've designed over time.  I may start playing around with it again, but am not sure yet what I want to do with it. Somewhere I've got the design for a resort that I did, and wanted to try and find it again, but to no avail.  I was thinking about that program, though, and wondering if I could use it to design a dollhouse... you know, just in case I have a granddaughter someday.  Or a friend who has one.  Whichever... Thought it could be a fun idea.  Just something else to think about, I guess.
 
Tonight we are supposed to get down to 18 degrees, and then the next two nights are forecast to be a low of 13.  THIRTEEN!!!!! I'm already freezing to death in this stupid house, and it's going to get down to 13??? I think I may gather up all the wood I have left and start a fire tomorrow afternoon, then throw up a big, thick, heavy blanket over the door and just sleep in that room. And wake up hourly to put more wood on the fire.  BRR!  Our electric bill is going to skyrocket! NOT good news by any means.  And here I've been hoping for warmer weather so that I can go take down the Christmas lights.  Haven't turned them on since Christmas day, so there's no sense in them being up.  Oh, well... I'm not going to be going out there in the cold to take them down, that's for sure.  I'd rather leave them until MAY!

Day 129: January 3, 2010

Quote of the Day: "The eternal quest of the individual human being is to shatter his loneliness." ~Norman Cousins

It is so hard to imagine that my boys are growing up! I can sit here and just look at them, and know that they have changed so much without me even realizing it! I can't believe that Cody will be a freshman in high school next year. It seems like just yesterday when I was carrying him around in my arms because he couldn't walk, and now I can't keep him still. I don't know what happened! And Damien, well... there's no telling with THAT kid anymore. It's hard for me to watch him making all the mistakes he's been making and not bite his head off or try to control his life, but the truth is that there's no way for me to explain what I'm thinking to him. He lives on a whole different planet than I do now. He's got that know-it-all, arrogant-young-adult thing going on right now, and I'm not sure what to do about it. I can remember thinking and feeling the same way, though, when I was dealing with my own mother. I grew out of it, so maybe he will too. Hopefully?


I was looking up at the stars in the sky the other night, just kind of enjoying the fact that I can see so many of them here, and I got to thinking… How many people in how many places can see that same exact group of stars that I can see, at the same time, and at the same angle? Amazingly, there are a whole lot of people that can see them at the same time, but the funny thing is that when you narrow it down to angles that number dwindles down. I know we will all see it eventually during the night, but if it’s directly overhead here at 9pm, then that means that it still has a couple hours before people in AZ can see it directly overhead. And it hasn’t been overhead for the people on the East coast for an hour or two by the time it’s that way here. And then, if you bring the whole latitude and longitude thing into it, it gets even MORE complicated! UGH! It’s just so much to think about, right? I mean, you know how we always look up at the stars and think to ourselves that the people we love are seeing the same stars? Well, that’s true, they are… but we never take into consideration that those people have either already seen it and gone to bed, or are still waiting anxiously to lay eyes on it. I have to say, it really does make me feel small to think about it. And trust me, I don’t need that… I’m already pretty small! HAHAHA

The coyotes were really, really close to the house last night! I was lying in bed, trying to go to sleep, and they started making this racket outside that would raise the dead! It sounded like they were just on the other side of our fence. They’d call and cry for a few minutes, get quiet for a short time, then start in again. It went on for almost half an hour! It gave me goosebumps to hear them so close, and for so long. Usually they sound like they are further away, and we can hear them loud at first and they grow quieter like they are running further away from the house. This time they were right there, the whole time and then after they went quiet the last time I never heard them the whole rest of the night. I know there are all sorts of critters that live out in the land behind our house, including a really cute family of bunnies. I was kind of hoping that they may have found a way to get hold of those really annoying mutts our next door neighbors have that bark the whole entire time we are out on our driveway, even if we’re out there for hours or all day. I really do hate those dogs! If it wasn’t for them, I would probably be friendly with our neighbors, because they really are nice people. But I just can’t get past my annoyance at their stupid dogs, and I am too afraid that I would open my big mouth and have to stick my foot in it. So alas, the neighbors are people that I may or may not wave to, depending on how much their dogs have been ticking me off. I can’t help it, though. I am NOT a dog person – especially little tiny rats that think they are all big and powerful. Good thing I am a decent person, though… it keeps me from throwing the rat poison over the fence.

Anyways, I tried the lasagna... it was okay, but it wasn't perfect. And after as long as it took I was really hoping that it would be! Oh, well, next time... no veggies! Period! Those can be made as a side dish, instead. The next time.... I shudder to think of the next time!  HAHAHA  And the rest of the day I spent sewing, instead of cooking.  So it's been a really nice, relaxing day.  Oh, yeah... and I made the bed. That's my big accomplishment of the day. Better luck tomorrow!