Home improvement and BEAUTIFUL store setup pics

While we were in DC this past weekend, Dick and Jeremy were on a mission.  First of all, a picture of Jeremy's house taken from the street.  It's an end-of-row-home with lots of potential and endless projects to do. 

Right behind those trash cans there was a place where a few bricks were missing and feral cats were coming and going into the crawl space under the house.  Dick and Jeremy came up with this solution:

Any cats that were still in there can get out (it swings out), but hopefully they will not be able to get back in.  Mike also read that they hate cayenne pepper, so he dumped a whole bunch of it on the ground!

Another problem has been squirrels in the crawl space above the second floor.  They've seen them crawl in through the openings in the bricks up there, and they sound like they're having all-out wrestling matches.  I was down on the first floor and heard a thud that sounded like someone would have fallen out of bed.  It was the squirrels above the second floor!!!  There's no way to access that area, so Dick and Jeremy made a little hole in the one bedroom ceiling, just enough to poke a squirrel repellant thing through, and they squirted the stinky stuff into the crawl space.  They closed the little hole with duct tape for now.  There were no squirrel wrestling matches that night!  Time will tell.  They may have to call an exterminator.

Here's what the dining room table-turned-work bench looked like.

One of Jeremy's projects was putting sturdy coat hooks in this little closet under the stairway.

There was quarter round to be cut and nailed down in the kitchen, and in the process they discovered how much cold air was coming in under the cabinets.  Once again, duct tape to the rescue!  I couldn't resist taking this picture!

The big project was tearing out a closet wall in Jeremy's bedroom.  It was a long closet with just one door in the middle, making a lot of it almost inaccessible.  

This is how it looked when we left - the dresser (which had been in his office down the hall) fit right into the closet.  He already got triple-track sliding panels at IKEA last evening to hang in front.  I'll be eager to see them.   

 
It's good these worker bees had a little time for this!

We packed up and left around 2:30, and headed to Glen Burnie, MD (about an hour away).  The past two weeks Jeremy had worked LONG days (7:30 am - 11:00 pm) getting a new store set up.  He got higher accolades and thanks from his boss than ever before, and he wanted to show us the fruit of all  his labor.  

Oh. My. Word!!  One amazing setup after the next.  I could not stop taking pictures.  They were having a Presidents Day 50% off sale, so the place was buzzing with activity.  Whenever sales people would ask if they could help me and I would say that I'm Jeremy's mom, they would exclaim over what a great job he had done.  One sales lady asked if I taught him how to decorate.  What a joke!  Definitely not!  A lot of natural talent and a lot of hard work at the Art Institute of Tampa and a whole lot of experience. Here's the proof!

Mike found a good chair!  His shoes look kind of good with the decor, don't you think?

Which is your favorite?

We said our goodbyes there at the store and headed for State College.  We were already an hour closer to home, so it was nice to be home by 8 pm.  

I'm GLAD we weren't traveling today.  We had freezing rain this morning followed by snow, now wind and more snow predicted.  I've been so good about trying to just enjoy the beauty of our snow instead of griping about it this winter.  But for some reason, this morning I didn't feel like appreciating the beauty of it.  I am really, really tired of being cold and I am officially ready for Spring.  This did not bring me a feeling of peace or joy this morning when I was ready to leave for work, especially when I realized there was a layer of ice under that snow.  But one thing to be very thankful for - my defroster and heat in my "new" car work like a charm, and everything was cleared off in short order.  I love it.