Why I Oughta...

I put 2 coats of stain on (and wiped them off!) yesterday and the color still isn't as DARK as we'd like it.  We're awfully close to matching the bookcases, so I think one more coat will do the trick. I'd like to be putting the first coat of polyurethane on tonight in order to meet the strict deadlines Nat has imposed.  After all, we still have the family room mantel to get done before Thursday!  Yikes!

Back in September, I documented the closure of a Papa John's Pizza place in Downtown Elmhurst  and looking back, I had high hopes for a new tenant right in the heart of Downtown.  Fortunately, the landlord found a tenant pretty quickly.  Unfortunately, it is a Fannie May store.  I fully realize that not EVERY store in town needs to tailor their wares to me and my family demographic, but I couldn't be LESS excited this new store. 

We installed the dentil and I think it turned out great.  Used our front door as a template and at first I wasn't sure the scale would translate.  But stepping back and peeking at it, I'm pleased with the look.   Tonight, I started to fill the holes and think about stain/coloring - going to try to match it up to the bookcases as best as I can.  Couldn't have done ANY of this with Nat's Dad both in terms of his skill set and tools!

I had my Illini to win four games tops thus year. After today's beatdown of the cats we're already at six. Oskee-wow-wow!

Thanks to Nat's Dad, we made A LOT of progress on the front living room mantel.  Charlie found some old oak boards at an estate sale and after a bit of sawing and planing we managed to make something pretty neat. It isn't done, but the Thanksgiving deadline is fast approaching.

We got back on the top 25 pizza places in Chicago routine with a stop at Louisa's on the southside in Crestwood.  Nat described this as the "best pizza she's ever tasted" and would not only come back for it, but would recommend this place to ANYONE.  That's how good this was.  My only complaint was that our crust was a bit burnt - and not in a good Pequods/Burt's Place-type of carmelized burnt.  This was just plain burnt. I think we had sausage, pepperoni and spinach, but I don't totally remember.  This place has all the charm of your buddy's parent's basement that hasn't been renovated since the mid 1980's.  Carpet on the floors, Chianti bottles hanging from the ceiling, etc.  But...they do churn out a great pie. You know you're on the south side when the front door specifies that men can't walk in wearing a tank top.  I am guessing that JP McCarthy's in Winnetka doesn't have the same problem. The pie in all of it&

The day has finally come:  we're going to finish off our fireplaces.  Nat has given me a Thanksgiving Day deadline.  Fortunately, I'm taking some time off which allowed me to get to the store to buy some wood to begin the project.  We're going to simulate the look of our front door with a pretty large dentil design. 3.5" blocks with 6" spacers is what I've laid out in the photo above.  I'm *hoping* that the scale will work once they go up on the wall.