This is the end. Farewell.

I know it has been a LONG LONG LONG time since I have posted here, but I think I have outgrown this blog. Or at least no longer fit the mold.

When I started writing back in 2009 I was still working full time. When I left science I never thought I would still be a stay at home mom 3 years later. But I am.

I never would have predicted that I would move across three different states and live in 6 different homes. But I did.

I have been blogging elsewhere about more benign things than balancing life in the lab and life at home. I no longer feel like I fit in the science blogger community and so I am closing up shop.

I have enjoyed blogging along side so many other wonderful people and I was honored to spend my time over on lab spaces. I have learned so much from this community. There was laughter, support, anger and sympathy. Much like life in the lab.

But all good things must come to an end.

If you would like to follow my new blog, please feel free to email me (labmomsblog@gmail.com) or tweet me (Lab_Mom) and I will give you the new URL. I am not posting it here since I am no longer using a pseudonym. (Unlike my previous gig, blogging about my current employment won't lead to my termination.)

Thanks so much, and I wish everyone else the best of luck. May your RO1s be funded and may your grad students not be morons!

Getting to Know Rachel Better.. A LOT Better.

Once again, Rachel has quickly become the most annoying player in the Big Brother house. And even when the main drama in the house has absolutely nothing to do with her, she is still grasping to be the center of attention.

And just like last season, her obnoxious run of Head of Household wins (where she gets to choose who is up for elimination) continues. Let the self-centered proclamations begin:

"WHO WANTS TO SEE MY HOH ROOOOMMM???"

Ahh! My ears are bleeding.

I think another member of the cast said it best:

"Anytime anyone [says] 'Wanna see my HOH room?' I don't care if it is Rachel or if it is Jesus Christ, I could really give a shit."

Amen!

However, with the revelation of her HOH room, we do get a little more insight into our favorite chemist. Baby pictures, pictures of her as a teen (Pouf hairdo anyone?) a goody basket filled with rice cakes, beef jerky and oranges (huh?)

Unfortunately there are no chemistry text books or molecular model kits. Bummer.

We do learn during this episode however that Rachel has fake teeth. Yes! FAKE TEETH. "They make her more confident." Umm.. yeah. Yikes.

She does go on to have a little pissing match with the 'love of her life' about whether or not she should have plastic surgery. Brendon tells her he thinks she is beautiful, and his comments are met with eye rolling and big sighs.

In the diary room Rachel points out:

"Brendon hates botox, lip injections, anything that is plastic surgery... but he never complains about these" [Points to her breasts]

EWWW! Does that mean she also has fake tatas? Told ya we were going to learn a lot more about her this season.

Sheeesss baaaaccckk...

Just when I thought my Big Brother blogging career was over, I sit down to watch the new season of Big Brother 13 and what is the surprise twist this season?

Oh yes..

Wait for it..

RACHEL!

Yes, our very own "Chemistry Grad Student" Rachel.

When we last left her, she and the love of her life she met in the Big Brother 12 house were busy registering for mustard and a TV console after being voted off the show.

Well, the geniuses at CBS decided this season wouldn't be the same without her and they have brought her back. If this sounds familiar, it is. CBS has done this before, bringing Rachel back last season after she was voted off. Her entry back into the house was even the same..

"I'mmmm baaackkk bitcccchhhesss" as she walks through the door.

If you missed tonight's episode, it looked pretty much like the first 15 seconds of this clip:


Now, this season they are no longer promoting or titling her as a "Chemist" like they did during last season. I think they are pretty sure nobody is falling for that story anymore, especially after her scientific brilliance shined though last season. (Although I must note that Brendan is still being called a "PhD student" just like last season)

And although there were big twists thrown in by the producers this season, and even though our girl Rachel won head of household, this was STILL the best line of the evening:

"It is all well and good riding a banana all night, and then you get a shot of whipped cream in the face.. " followed by weird mule-like braying laughter

But if this is any indication of how the season is going to go, bring on the blogging!

And welcome back Rachel!

House Staging 101: The Master Bedroom

I figured I may as well finish up this series of posts on staging. Since I showed you pretty much the entire downstairs I figured you probably would want to see the bedrooms as well.

So here it goes. Our house has 3 bedrooms upstairs, and one bathroom. We use the largest bedroom as the master since we use the lower level bedroom as an office. Both the Princess and the Peanut have their own rooms. Tonite I will feature the Master Bedroom.

When we moved in we did not change any paint colors upstairs. Therefore all the differences you see in these pics is SOLELY from staging.

Before:
Eh, nothing special. The bed laying so close the floor is a little odd, plus the funky red throw pillows aren't really a consistent color with the dusty green walls. (I am not even sure what that red santa looking thing on the far right is.) Plus this photo is not indicative of the actual size of the room

There is so much wrong with this. First off the photograph is awful, all bleached out. Secondly, I am pretty sure this photograph was trying to capture the closet space and built ins, but the angles are just not showing the room in it's best light. And finally, there is a space heater in the room. BIG RED FLAG. Yes, it is true, the money pit is a heating nightmare and the bedrooms do get really cold, but you don't want to point that out to your buyers!

There are some additional minor things I dislike about the way this picture is staged. The two prints on the wall are undersized and it is strange that one has a thick framing mat around it and one does not. All the electronics and bric-a-brac on top of the built in is also very unappealing. It could be worse, but it could be a lot better.

After:We have a very high bed. The bedside lamps throw extra light in the dark back corner of the room and their vertical outline draw your eyes up so you don't notice the slope of the walls. Extra pillows on the bed give it a more luxurious feel.


The photographer wanted to make sure he got a photo down the hall. It shows how much natural light pours in though the hallway and it also gives you a better idea of the upstairs layout (that the master bedroom is at one end of the hallway)


All the frames on the wall are different but they contain black and white photos of the kids. You often hear that you need to depersonalize your house when selling because you want the buyers to feel at home there. I believe that is true in common spaces like living rooms, dining rooms etc. But in the bedrooms I like to leave personal touches. Our target buyers were going to be families (since we have a 4 bedroom house). We wanted to make it seem like this house was a good place to raise kids. That is also why we left the kid's rooms staged as little girls' rooms instead of depersonalizing one into a guest room.

By keeping everything black and white (which works as a neutral) the photographs don't become distracting. If I had my preference we would have got rid of that TV for staging, but LabDad vetoed that. We did get rid of the VCR and DVD player so there wasn't a big distracting tangle of cords.

Instead of the angle (away from the windows) the previous sellers used, we chose to shoot into the window. It is one of the big selling features of this room, and although you don't see all the closets, you see the built ins and get the idea that there is plenty of storage.

So that is the master bedroom. Clean, neutral and well lit.




This post is also included in Adventuroo's meme: Capture the Everyday!

Reading Challenge: Week 2

We are still hard at work plowing through the Kindergarten Reading list for our Spring/Summer Reading Challenge. It has been a little rainy here and so we have been hanging out at the library quite a bit.

In the past seven days we have read 16 of the remaining 122 books, bringing our total books read to 29!

This week, one again there was a clear favorite: Take Care, Good Knight by Shelly Moore Thomas.
In this darling story, 3 little dragons are asked to take care of a wizard's cats while he is away. Silliness ensues when they realize they cannot read his note on how to care for his pets. The Good Knight comes riding to the rescue (with his trademark "clippity-clop") and helps translate the note. The cartoonish drawings are adorable, and not the least bit scary. The Princess loved it immediately and we had to read it at least two additional times.

This book is actually a sequel (I have noticed a lot of books on this list are sequels) to the 2000 book Good Night, Good Knight by the same author. We of course checked that book out on our next trip to the libarary along with the others in the series: Take Care, Good Knight, A Cold Winter's Good Knight, Happy Birthday Good Knight and A Good Knight's Rest (aren't these titles a hoot?)

It was also funny that in our search for Thomas' Good Knight series, we stumbled upon very similar books series by David Melling. The first Good Knight, Sleep Tight came up when we did a title search but his other two (Three Wishes, The Kiss that Missed) were equally enchanting. I am pretty sure princes and princesses, handsome knights, horses, magic and humor would always be a sure win.
So once again this week's books spun off eight additional books and two new favorite authors. I couldn't be more thrilled.

Books on List: 135

Week 1: 13 read (10%)
Bonus Books Read: 3

Week 2: 16 read (12%)
Bonus Books Read: 8

Total Read: 29 + 11 = 40
Books Remaining: 106 (78%)

LabMom's Top 5 Open House Visiting Tips

I have been keeping myself busy on the weekends attending open houses for comps in our neighborhood. Because TheMoneyPit was about to hit the market, I wanted to make sure that I knew exactly what competition we were up against. What they were selling for, what condition they were in, how they were staged etc.

Well, these weekly visits have opened my eyes to the fact that people just do NOT understand proper open house etiquette. Honestly people.. you may one day own the home you are viewing for for the time being you are a GUEST in the home of the people holding the open house. SHOW SOME RESPECT.

Here are my top 5 tips for people visiting an open house.
Honestly, I can't believe I need to even point these out, but because I have seen these behaviors (either in real life or in shows on TV like House Hunters and Property Virgins) I guess I need to point them out.

1. IF IT DOESN'T CONVEY YOU DON'T NEED TO TOUCH IT
This weekend I almost fell over when a woman at an open house with me started to paw through the homeowner's underwear drawer. It was in a large armoir which clearly was not included in the sale. I was shocked. What in the world makes you think you have the right to handle someone's skivvys? What exactly are you looking for? Don't you realize that her Victoria's Secret collection is NOT included in the sale? Keep your hands off!

2. DO NOT LAY ON THE HOME OWNERS BED
Yes, I get it. You feel at home. You are so in love with the house you feel like you need to lay down... but don't! This isn't a hotel. This isn't a slumber party. Get out of the bed.

3.DON'T GIVE A RUNNING COMMENTARY ON THE HOME OWNER'S POSSESSIONS
Sure, maybe the seller has a giant collection of Virgin Mary Shot Glasses. So what? It may be an odd thing to collect but it has little to nothing to do with the sale of the house. We don't really want to listen to you extrapolate on how it must be their way of using divine intervention to battle alchohol addiction. There is no point in oohing and ahhing over the wedding pictures on the nightstand or the funky modern art over the toilet tank. The people who currently live in the house (and all their crap) are not what you are shopping for. This isn't a museum. Stop focusing on the personal effects and start looking at the house. Or else you are just annoying to the rest of us.

5. READ THE DAMN MLS LISTING
Pretty much every open house hosting agent provides a listing sheet when you enter the home. Consider it the cheat sheet with all the answers to your questions. If you want to know something about the house check there first. There is nothing more annoying than trying to tour an open house in peace and instead being forced to listen to someone play 40 questions with the broker.

"What year was this built? How many bedrooms does it have? How much are they asking?.. blah blah blah"

Read the listing already! Sure, if you have a question that isn't on the sheet of course you should ask, but simple things like square footage, bedroom/bathroom number, lot size, and number of parking spaces etc are right there in black and white. Stop being annoying and read it. (Plus it begs the question why are you at an open house if you don't even know the number of bedrooms and/or price of the listing?)

5. YOU DON'T NEED TO TEST OUT THE BATHTUB
This is a lot like rule number 2. Until you own the house, it isn't your bathtub. Don't crawl in there and make some comment about how you "could get used to this." It is a freaking bathtub. We all have seen them before, there is no reason you need to give it a dry run. Take a bath before you leave the house.

So there you have it. Stating the obvious that needed to be said. You wouldn't behave like an idiot in a home you were visiting (well, at least I would hope not), so don't do it at an open house. The home sellers (and your fellow house hunters) thank you.

House Staging 101: The Office

The house is about to hit the market! We are wrapping up the staging and tonight I am going to feature the office/master suite. It is a fourth bedroom on the living level of the house with an attached bathroom. We use it as an office and common bath, since we prefer to sleep on the same floor as the kids, but it could be used as a master if the new buyer wanted to.

When we bought the house, they were using it as a den/family room and this was the photo from the MLS listing:

Honestly, we actually weren't even using it as an office. We were using it as a storage unit. We had boxes and boxes of stuff we never unpacked from the move a little less than a year ago. The room looked a lot like this:

Looking into the bathroom hallway (closet doors on right)

The first thing i did was repaint the room. I wanted it to be a different color than the living space, and I wanted it to be darker to accenutate the white crown molding (it is the only room in the house with crown, which once again implies it is the master)

Yes, we have crap piled halfway up the wall.. it was like an episode of hoarders

Paint before (left) and after (right)

Then we decluttered, decluttered, decluttered. I used all my sewing notions and antiqu sewing machines along with LabDad's giant book collection to stage the shelves.

This is the result:

Looking in the opposite direction (at the closet doors)

Looking into the bathroom

Yes, that is the very same bathroom I made over earlier this year. In case you have erased the horror from your memory, it looked like this:

Of course there is no MLS listing photo, because nobody would be crazy enough to feature this ugly ass bathroom on their listing

Fortunately now the bathroom looks like this:

Much better.