Mulit-Master Creative Process.

SO. I'm stuck. Here is my jumbled mess of ideas and maybe blogging it out will help me sort through it. Feel free to throw in your two or three cents worth! Unfortunately, I am not finding things that I like that the gentleman with the last word also likes. He likes high gloss granite which is nice but t's also WAY too slick for my kitchen which is the room that spends April through October wet from the 50 neighborhood kids in the water in the backyard. We all know what that is like...



Keep in mind my kitchen is changing. On the wall that currently has the red flower picture, there will be this vintage wallpaper I found on Ebay in two big framed out boxes. The wall behind those trim boxes will be the bright green and then on the paneling and trim for the boxes, a darker green. My old wooden kitchen table is getting a coat of acid yellow and we are getting chairs I can WIPE clean this time, aluminum chairs from Sundance Catalog. The cabinet pulls I bought are just simple brushed silver and go with the industrial light already over the sink and the stainless appliances going in. Now that you can hopefully picture this, whattya think about these for tile? I really hope I can just go back there one more time to order and then never go back there again. My kids are sick of going to Contempo Tile and it's WAAAAY too close to the shooting deadline.




I would do this herringbone in a grey or brick color instead of creme.


I love this idea the most. I'm so into checkerboard because it can be any period, anywhere. It can be Moroccan Ballroom or London Hotel or 50's diner. I would do it in the two tiles in the bottom right corner, gray and black.

My two favorite styles here. I love this bottom style but I would do it in gray and black instead of browns. Or at least do the smaller boxes in dark gray or black. The warmth of the larger tiles could be kind of nice, really.

So there you have it. Sigh. I'm going to go over this another hundred times while I watch the Red Carpet re-cap.

The Before Multi Master Pictures.

This is what my kitchen looks like. And sad to say what it has looked like for about 6 weeks. Yes. Debris and all. I never bagged it up. I also never finished ripping out the particle board subfloor. (Yes, I know it's like a big fragile saltine cracker should it get soaked, that is why I'm tearing it out. Why do men think they have to mention this? Do they assume I'm tearing it out because my high heels put unsightly dents in it?)



The good news is that had I finished it, the Multi-Master folks wouldn't have been able to shoot in my house. Their tool is perfect for ripping out the last of my subfloor. They are also helping with that ledge thingie under the window, whatever it's called. Their tool will cut the broken tile out. I could cry with the happiness.

They are also grinding down the big thick crack in the unsightly plaster in my livingroom ceiling and doing a regular knock down texture. And one of the the mold walls downstairs will probably get a little dry wall and mudding but I'm not sure... I'll have some "before" pictures up of those, too, shortly. I want every one of my readers, you loyal few, to be able to see how awesome these people are and what they are doing for me. They could choose to rent a stage at like, K-Jazz Studios and build a set and show their stuff there, but they did not. They picked real people with real problems that this tool can fix because they are a bunch of super cool selfless dudes. So there.

Miracles and Meltdowns.

I have been going back to the gym with the attitude, "Let's agree to forgive and forget, Gold's Gym. I will do so if you help me get in shape for the Cancer Marathon in April. Which is bigger than us both and is a cause we can agree to team up for, right?"

WRONG. I get the kids ready and drive to their favorite Gold's location in Orem to be a cool Mom. Today for some reason is the day Gold's Orem decides I can't workout. They tell me the gym access pass is expired but I do have another year of daycare. So I'm back to square one...again. For those of you that have no idea what this is about, I will catch you up quickly. Last year Brett gave me a one year free pass! I had the gym employee sign me up for my year. I told him I would need a year daycare to go with and that I was happy to pay for that. He filled out two contracts, one Gym pass one Daycare pass. I look at the dates on the Gym pass and it's correct, for one year. I sign both. Later I am told that I have TWO years Daycare. I say, "No way! I asked for and signed a contract for one year."

NOPE! The guy put a two year date on the daycare. Why? Not sure. To get me to pay money for no reason for a service I can't utilize I guess. Or in other words to totally screw me.

So I go through the ringer. I go to corporate offices where they laugh me out the door with the attitude, "We don't care what you were told you were getting, the date is right there and there is your signature, so, *bird finger raised* there is the door." Everyone at Corporate offices I talk to gives me this same attitude. I also call Paramount Acceptance (that owns my contract) over and over to talk to a supervisor. I leave messages. One calls me back TWO WEEKS later and says, "This is Joanne *sigh* call me back at *rambles off number* click." Like she's pissed to get MY voicemail after I got hers half a dozen times. I talk to her, I talk to her supervisor. I talk to everyone. Nada. I give up. I quit going to the gym even though I have months left on both passes. Because I am pissed and angry every time I see Gold's. I decide to pay for it in full to sell on Craig's List. I find out, when I call to pay in full, that I have an account that shows two years of gym and daycare!! I ask multiple times if he is sure! Yep. He says he's 99% sure. HUZZAH! Oh glorious day someone must have helped me! Someone that I left a message with took pity on me and did the right thing and gave me the extra year as a consolation for all of the crap I've been through! I go back to Gold's with a forgiving heart after a very busy few months of work. I am going to get in shape and single handedly raise a billion dollars to fight cancer. All is well!

NOPE! Access Denied.

The blonde Gym Manager that wouldn't let me in was such a condescending human being. She said things out of half closed eyes like, "Well it seems simple to me but you obviously have gotten confused somewhere." I had to keep telling her I was NOT confused. That wasn't the problem. I seem to find CS people that think that explaining how things go down somehow equals customer service. Like, "If I just get you to understand how it all happened you will go away." It doesn't. I am not confused. I was there for how it went down and I can read your computer screen as well as you can. And when customers get upset, the goal of a Manager should not be to go out of their way to try and be "smarter" than the customer. It's not a contest.

She had me talk to a cool guy named Keola who was very calm and listened. He would look into doing the right thing and get back to me. So I am waiting.

Onto a couple new updates elsewhere...

1. I read CJane's update on her blog about people's comments. She has so many to deal with I guess it's her equivalent of customer relations, really. I would not ever imagine that she had to weed out rude comments. Guess what, she does. She put a few in her post. People called her selfish and self centered. Which I find HILARIOUS after everything her family has sacrificed in order to help out Nie. I mean, really. Some people are nuts. NUTS! Projection as a human condition should be taught in school along with Math and Science. Anis Nin says you see the world not as it is, but as you are. BINGO.

2. My producer friend called. (The one that took lots of pictures of our house for the info-mercial?) They liked our house. So they came by with a few more decision makers and did a Tech Scout. They liked our house. Then corporate guys flew in and they did another Tech Scout. They liked our house. So its official now, we just got word the week of Christmas. They will shoot in our house!! We supply the ugly before, they supply the lovely after. The extent of which has not been determined but the kitchen gets a whole overhaul for certain. The aesthetic decisions being made by me and their Art Director together. So we have a creative meeting to schedule and the rest of my January will be spent happily wheeling and dealing with the SUPER cool guys from Multi Master! I feel like they are my little mini-Extreme Home Make-Over team. I am SO grateful. It's a Christmas Miracle!!

I'm praying for another one from Gold's. That they will be calling me back with a free year of Gym access or give me my money back!! Why not, right? I'm pretty sure anything can happen after the Multi-Master Miracle.