Happy Halloween everyone!

This is my beagle in her football jersey.



No, she's not going out tonight - but we are!! I am a scrooge when it comes to holidays and I was just going to shut all the lights off and hide. A local radio station called me a few hours ago to tell me I won tickets to see David Byrne tonight!! Go look him up if you have to, but many of you are familiar with his work. DH is so excited!! This same radio station gave me tickets to see Jakob Dylan a few months ago. (You may need to look him up too - but you are familiar with his father!)

So, must leave work early so I can get home and get to Boston in time for the show. YAY!!!

Well, the laminate is down. Just need to finalize some trim work and then we can declare the floor completely done. We have decided not to put laminate on the stairs. We will either stain or paint them, depending on what we are up against once we pull up the carpet. Much cheaper and easier than the laminate would have been. We are both happier with this option and I'm sure it will look fine. Here are the costs so far:

Previous total: $290.43
Laminate flooring: $489.51
Underlay and tape: $47.13
Stair nose and trim for the room: $42.96
Nails, more underlay, more tape: $20.92
Return extra insulation: -$26.29
Odds & ends: $2.88

Total so far: $867.54

I'm quite happy this project will stay under $1000 ! We are very pleased with the floor. Now if we could only get the room back together! Two turtles are now home and I just have to fix the third tank.

Here is my 55 gallon tank with my red eared slider:


Here is my 30 gallon tank with my painted turtle:


The tank on the right in this picture is the one I am supposed to be fixing - at this moment!

Yup, someone I know is getting bailed out! These people spend and spend and spend.... Forgive me if I'm not really clear on the details. I get this information third-hand. They are the stereotypical spenders - just have to buy everything! They almost lost a house a few years ago, but instead they ended up in a much larger and newer house. Of course they are in danger of losing this house as well. I was just told that this house is in an elderly relative's name. The relative just got a letter from the bank stating that the late payments will be rolled over into the loan. The bank is also refinancing the loan 1% lower which will save them $200 per month.

Wait. I work hard, pay all my bills, and don't have extravagances in my life. Where's MY bailout?

Well, today was the day we rented the uhaul and bought the plywood. This was the 2nd biggest expense for this project. Most expensive part will be the laminate flooring. I want to track this project, so here is what we've spent so far:

Prior to today:
Various tools & Accessories: 71.23

Uhaul rental: 33.01
This includes 19.95 rental, 1.00 environmental fee, 1.27 tax, 4.31 mileage charge, 6.48 gas. They tried to give us trouble with the gas "usage"! DH saw that the needle was just touching F, so he thought that's what they considered full. After the trip, he went and put TWO gallons in the van. We only went 7.3 miles, so there's no way we even used two gallons of fuel. The lady tried to charge him extra because the tank wasn't completely full. Well, long story short - it's a FORD and we've never seen a Ford fuel gauge that wasn't tempermental. No extra charges for us. I would have disputed with my credit card if Uhaul had tried to pull anything funny. I have never had a good experience renting from them, but this was the cheapest option for us.

Insulation: 58.00
Joint compound: 3.48
Random metal things: 2.00 DH is reinforcing part of the floor with these
Screws: 7.68
Project Starter coupon: -10.00 YAY!
Tax: 3.16
Total: 66.40

5 Sheets Plywood: 122.20
2x4x96 board: 1.89
Project Starter coupon: -10.00 YAY again!
Tax: 5.70
Total: 119.79

These were 10.00 off 50.00 coupons, so we each bought some of the items.

Running total spent so far: 290.43 Yuck!

This is going to be more expensive than I thought. We priced laminate and the prices have gone up a bit over the last couple of years. Plus we have to do the stairs as well. It will look nice, but really drive the cost up. Laminate stair nosings cost around 20.00 EACH!! We have no choice on the stairs. We can't leave the ratty non-matching carpet there. It matches what's currently upstairs, but that's leaving soon.