I am at home today while the floors are being redone by Amherst Refinishing. It is amazing what a difference it makes. The guys from the crew are really friendly. I took before shots of each room.

The previous owner had so many cats that pissed everywhere. I didn't think they would be able to get all the cat pee stains from the last owner out but the sanders completely fix everything.In fact they had the liter boxes in the dining room - who doe sthat. Multiple ones.

I think that is one of the reasons the house was such a bargain - because the previous owners didn't really clean it up much when we saw it. With a little bit of work I think they could have got a lot more of money out of it.

I wondered if the stains would come out. This is a shot of the living room before with stains


Here we are half and half. Look how dirty they had gotten.


Here it is afterwards. Notice the total lack of stain on the floor.

We stooped at the new Elmwood market at the corner of Elmwood and North after a trip to the park with Gaylin. She was working on a project for school about using parks as learning environments for children.

They don't have beer yet ;( but they do have a broad selection of food stuffs. Very similar to Wilson's Farms but with a little more variety. E.g. more non dairy choices including tofutti brand products. There is also a Deli.



The ceiling is lined with historic pictures of Buffalo. (e:matthew) get a sub.

Who the hell eats Pork cracklins. They make me so sick to even think about. Imagine the nasty factory full of bolts of skin awaiting the deep fry process.



mmmbarf, barbeque

While on a little tour of Park Side we went to the Golf course section of Delaware park so that Gaylin could take some pictures for her project. I think it is the first time I ever made it out to this rock. As a side note, that park is filthy, disgusting filled to the brim with dog shit. I never saw so much in my life. This makes me sound like an idiot but never having had a dog I always thought the plastic bags full of shit everywhere were so weird.

I didn't realize they were from dogs till way late in life and thought that humans, who couldn't make it to bathroom were shitting in grocery bags and leaving them outside.



The ground was so soft at the park, you could see mud everywhere instead of frozen dirt.


We also saw the progress on the Darwin Martin house. It is coming along great. I love the style of the house. At the same time with the Fence around it, it kind of looks like a prison camp gun tower.




And for a totally unrelated ending. We were at the research library at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society the other day and I saw this section of Buffalo phonebooks. Look at the style explosion that is the row which represents the 1960s.


You can see how advertising is changed forever with the addition of color print. What you can't see is the rise of the electronic phonebook.

We went to Saigon Bangkok at 512 Niagara Falls blvd and I have to say it was amazingly delicious and fresh with a pleasant atmosphere and really excellent wait staff. Did I mention hot wait staff?

We had some summer and spring rolls to start.




I also had some crab soup which was super delicious


Then, I had the Saigon Bangkok shrimp fried rice.


(e:matthew) had beef Pho


(e:terry) had the chicken vermicelli.


I would go back anytime. It was one of the best dining experiences I had in a long time. I think the prices were very reasonable too, we paid $48 for 3 people including those appetizers, mmy crab soup and green tea for two.

In response to (e:mike,43826)'s post about the Linwood Home Tour - We have been working so hard on the house to get it ready for the tour. We just painted the dining room yesterday. All of the work we do on the house is with our own money. We in no way benefit directly from the tour.



We were going to paint the living room today but decided to wait until after we see how dirty stuff gets with the floors being sanded.

I wonder how they will get these stains out?


And these trouble areas


The estimator thought it could all be fixed. I can't wait to see.

(e:matthew) suggested making our house a free tour spot.

(e:mike), I totally understand how you felt about the Linwood Home Tour last tour, especially the apartment building (free advertsiement) part of the tour, but you also have to think about having seen the inside of the other houses. Its not often that you get to see what the inside of these houses look like. Perhaps, it is old hat to you because you see our house all the time, but for some people its a totally fresh experience.

None of the money is going back to the people that are opening their homes to 1000 people. It is going to buying new trees, fixing up the street, etc.

You have to think of it like a comic book convention. People will pay $20 to get into a comic book convention if they like comic books. I mean how much of that money goes to charity. Same with the Linwood Tour and people that have a thing for historical architecture - it is really exciting. At least in this case the money is being used to beautify the public space of our neighborhood that anyone can use.

I also think it is stupid that houses can not do it more than one year in a row. I would rather see a couple repeats but have a bunch more houses to look at.

Here we are int he foyer - pre floor redone. (e:matthew) took this picture. You can see the area where we removed that remudled modern bathroom from under the stairs.


UPDATE: While shopping for supplies we stopped at that consignment furniture shop on Sheridan near Colvin and got this solid oak dining set for $299. It is huge and seats eight. The woman selling it was getting a divorce and just wanted to get rid of it. It will be so nice to have somewhere to sit for dinner parties.



The roses from (e:matthew)'s birthday keep getting even prettier.


(e:matthew) really wanted this light at Lowes but it is all plastic and I am done with plastic crap. I feel we have way to much plastic in our lives and I have been working for hard to reduce that. I would rather wait till we can afford a glass one or try and make one myself.


(e:terry) pointed out that if oil runs out, someday plastic will be rarer and people would say an original solid plastic early 21st century tiffany style lamp, lol.