One of my 2018 goals is to read more. I have compiled a collection of books on my bedside table to help with this goal! I think it's important to read for different reasons, whether that be to grow or just for enjoyment. My current pile falls into these 5 categories:
*Personal development: Bittersweet.
An amazing book that has provided me with a fresh perspective. It has challenged me to find the sweet in the bittersweet moments of my life.
*Professional development Power of Positive Leadership
I am fortunate enough to be apart of the Butler Leadership team this year. We are reading this book as a group and reflecting upon it each month. I love learning and growing as a professional!
*Enjoyment The Last Leaves Falling
Honestly, haven't started this one yet, but I have heard good things.
*Spiritual development Jesus Calling
Short and to the point. This daily devotional sets my mind and heart ready to conquer the day!
*Journal
Not a book, but it helps me reflect and serves as an outlet for my ideas and feelings (good and bad!)
What's on your bedside table?
Monday, January 29, 2018
Saturday, January 27, 2018
Man Cave Makeover
When Luke and I bought the brick beauty, there were many big projects we took into consideration when we made an offer. We have a long someday list. It's one of my favorite things about our home! I love dreaming of these renovations...
Someday we'll gut the kitchen.
Someday we'll get all the wallpaper down.
Someday we'll renovate the master bath.
Someday we'll replace the boiler.
Someday we'll finish the basement.
That last someday is still true.
Although this was a basement project, it is not crossed off the list.
It just got a band-aid fix, for now.
It all began with Luke's Christmas list.
Christmas lists are non-negotiable in our household.
It is a tradition long held by my mom's family.
You don't have a list, you're on Grandma's shit-list.
Christmas 2017, Luke asked for the new classic (oxymoron?!) Nintendo system and the Super Mario game for the Nintendo 64. These gift ideas got me thinking of a bigger and better idea - a man cave! Aaaaand if I'm being completely honest, I did not want the Nintendo in the living room or our master bedroom ;)
As I've said before, I get so excited about a project I forget to take a before photo and it ends up being an in-process photo.
Before-ish:
The walls look nasty, but it's just the plaster falling away and the hideous paint color that makes it look worse than it is.
The useable space is huge!
This doesn't even include our 2 storage areas.
I can't wait to finish it someday.
My band-aid fix included the following:
- paint wet-bar
- hang curtains to hide the hideous wall
- hang lights
- re-arrange
- decorate
All of this ^ while hiding it from Luke, who lives here... It was hard! I was in the middle of re-arranging when Luke got home from basketball. I told him his gift was down there and not to go down. I ran upstairs for awhile and 5 minutes later he hands me my phone and coffee, which were downstairs. I freaked a little - thinking he was onto me. From then on, I used every free second I could when he was gone.
Painting the wet-bar was my first to-do. I was mid-painting when he called me to say he was on his way home. I've never painted so fast in my life trying to get the first coat done! I came home early for a few days from school to get it done between 4-5 when he was still working. I hung the curtains and lights one night when he had a basketball game and I was instantly in love. Much to my dismay, the next morning they had all fallen down. With the falling plaster, the command hooks just didn't cut it. Handy-man Jack saved the day and re-hung them for me with screws. It was busy and stressful, but worth it!
My excuse for him not going down there until Christmas was that his gift was wrapped down there but not hidden very well by the wrap job. Of course the boiler stopped working on the 21st and Luke had to go down with the heating/cooling guy. I unveiled the surprise a little early, which made Christmas not as exciting, but Luke didn't mind. He loved it, as do I!
After:
I was going to buy a flat screen, but again, too stressful.
Luke can pick that out himself!
Here starts the not-so-pretty side.
I only put curtains on the wall with the TV, mainly because that's where your eye goes when you're sitting on the couch or recliner. Plus, this is a temporary fix. Even cheap curtains add up when you're covering whole walls ($$!) and I don't want to spend much on a short term fix. We do not foresee using this space other than for video gaming and lounging just the 2 of us. Maaaybe Luke will have the guys down there, but they don't pay attention to that stuff anyway, right? ;)
My home gym, only missing a treadmill. Crossing my fingers it comes as a birthday gift...
The paint colors in this house truly make me scratch my head. Do you see that lime green peeking out on the left side of this photo? Our living room was that color when we moved in. LOL!
*Excuse the terrible lighting from iPhone.
In-home arcade basketball shooting game - soooo incredibly cheap, but so fun!
Luke's birthday is on January 3rd right after Christmas so I got this for him to add to the man cave.
Not perfect, but better!!
Someday it will be redone. Someday.
For now....
Luke will continue to enjoy his N64 Mario game in a recliner.
And that's all you need.... heaven!
*Updated 2/25/28
Luke found a wicked retro chair at Goodwill this weekend ($5).
Unplanned, but it matches the came-with-the-house-curtains... LOL.
Luke didn't want to invest in a flat screen down here yet (good thing I didn't buy one!) We found an old one at his family's storage unit we can use for the time being. He also found an old, but really nice sound system on the garage sale site on facebook. I can't wait to use it while working out!
Monday, January 22, 2018
The tales of our Escape Artist
Looking to introduce your dog to your cat(s)? We have tips below! Having trouble keeping a strong and smart dog contained? Read our failed tales to know what NOT to try!
Let's start from the beginning...
Although I did not grow up with a dog in my childhood home, I knew I wanted one as an adult (a German Shepherd to be exact!) Many friends and family members had dogs I grew to love and I feel they are such a nice addition to a family - adding another protective presence. My cousins' families always had big/masculine, but gentle dogs and I think this is where my dream of having a German Shepherd came from. Luke did grow up with dogs, his favorite one being a Collie.
We were not ready to deal with the responsibility of a puppy, so we were looking to adopt an older dog. I began looking in the summer of 2017, but as you can imagine, the breed I was looking for wasn't commonly found at shelters. I kept an eye on our local shelter's facebook page and searched other Iowa shelters with no luck. I sent Luke LOTS of dog listings, and we even visited a few at our local shelter, but none of them were a good fit for us.
When I saw Thor on our local animal shelter's page, I knew we had to act fast. A German Shepherd/Husky mix was not going to last long at a shelter! We visited him quite a few times and loved his demeanor. One big deciding question we had to ask, how is he with cats? We have 2 - Abe and Ollie. I was very nervous about this, seeing as he was given to the shelter for harming a piglet. We walked him through the cat area at Almost Home before bringing him home and his interactions were perfect. He happily wagged his tail the whole time! He gets along with both our cats, but more so with Abe. Ollie is the dominant animal of the house and in a way bullies Thor (pretty ironic seeing as Thor is much bigger). We did a lot of research about this introduction and found these steps to work for us.
How to introduce your dog to your cat(s):
1) Cats away, dog in.
We shut the cats away and took Thor through the house on a leash. This gave him a chance to get used to their smells and our home. We kept the leash on because he wasn't fixed yet and I was terrified he'd lift his leg to mark his territory. He didn't try.
2) Dog away, cats in.
We put Thor outside and let the cats out to smell his presence. We did this for the first week or so, keeping the cats away anytime Thor was in the house.
3) Leashed introduction.
Luke went in first to locate the cats and I brought Thor in on a leash. The cats had a less than friendly first reaction (arched backs, hair up) but were mainly just unsure of their new furry brother. This definitely helped Thor learn his place in our home. We did this for awhile before we could trust Thor to not chase them. In case you forgot how amazing I mentioned he is, he is a very chill dog. He learned to coexist with them, and he learned they are not like the pigs he chased at the farm. These ones will stop and hiss at him ;)
4) Make a special spot for the dog.
The first few months, we made a spot for him in the living and our bedroom using a blanket as a dog bed. This reinforced the fact he was not to get up and chase the cats as they walked by. He tends to have sudden movements when he moves his head or moves from laying to sitting, so this freaked out the cats at first, but they have also learned how to handle him being in our home. We still have the blankets out in attempts to keep his shedding hair in one spot, but we are not as strict about him using it.
The boys, as we refer to them, didn't take long to warm up to each other. This was taken the first week of adopting Thor:
Thor is an amazing dog! I still can't believe it all worked out. I mean seriously, isn't he so handsome!?
He is an amazing running partner - he loves being active with us.
He loves people.
He is very calm - literally lounges all day as long as there is someone home with him.
He is incredibly smart and strong. His intelligence and strength has made it very challenging to keep him contained. He has been apart of our family for 6 months now - and he has kept us on our toes the entire time. I wanted to document the tales of Thor, as with time the details of his escaping will become fuzzy. They are quite the tales, so I want to remember them forever!
How not to keep your strong and smart dog contained:
Attempt #1 - tie out leash
Thor grew up on a farm before he came to us, so we assume he roamed around outside quite a bit. He has a lot of anxiety with being contained in a small area, and we think it is because he probably never was as a puppy. Luckily, since we adopted him during the summer, we could leave him outside on a tie out leash most of the time. That is, until he got off his tie out leash (within the first week of adoption) and made us second guess this option.
Escape #1
I was running a few errands and hooked him up outside as I left. When I got home about an hour later, I didn't see him. He sometimes gets tangled in our bushes, so I went and pulled on his tie out leash. I was shocked when I kept pulling with no resistance, and quickly discovered he was not on the end of the leash. Utter terror. If you've ever lost your dog, you know this feeling. I ran around the house, yelling his name and looking for him. No signs. Of course my phone had died while running errands, so I ran inside to plug it in and call Luke for help, as my brain was not working properly under stress.
After talking with Luke, I got in my car and started driving around the neighborhood looking for him. Of course it was raining, but regardless I had my window down to yell. No luck. The scariest part for me was that the leash was in perfect condition and his collar was not left behind. How does a dog get off a leashed hooked to his collar without breaking anything? By being taken :(
I came back home to my charged phone to make some calls. I called all the vet clinics, the pound, the police department, the radio station, the dog catcher. I went back outside again looking for clues, hoping to find him. I noticed the front screen door was ripped apart. I've never been so happy to see destruction! This meant he wasn't taken. He was trying to get back into the house before he took off.
A few minutes later, I received a call from the dog catcher. He had just received a call about a German Shepherd at Duncombe (the old Fair Oaks) 2 blocks from our house. I told him I would meet him there. Frantically walking towards the school, I see Thor. Instant relief. Oh, and did I mention? He had just been neutered so he was wearing a cone, LOL. Quite the sight.
What we think happened.... As I said, it was raining. Luke said he remembered hearing a loud bang of thunder shortly before I called him about Thor missing. We now know that Thor gets spooked by storms. After hearing the thunder, he probably had an adrenaline rush and must've hit the leash hook just right to get his collar hook out of it and take off. He made his way over to the school, whose doors were wide open letting carpets dry. A janitor found him wandering the halls, in his cone.
All this happened within an hour's time. We were so glad to have him home! We no longer trusted the tie out leash as a viable option, so we moved to our next bright idea.
Attempt #2 - collapsible kennel
We borrowed a kennel similar to the link above, from Luke's parents to use when we adopted Thor. I hated leaving him in it. We would come home and the kennel would be covered in his slobber from the stress. It was the appropriate size for him, but didn't give him much room to move around. No surprise he tried with all his might to get out of it. He would use his nose to move the lever to open it. When we bungee corded that, he would push the kennel panels apart and escape through the top or side. We tried bungee cording the panels and it worked, sometimes.
Escape #2
He managed to escape this kennel many times, most being not a big deal as he would just stay in the garage. A few times we came home to him in the house. Despite the door being a pull door, he would open the door to get into the house, even when it was latched. Or other times, he would hit the garage door opener and take it upon himself to leave. The first time this happened was when we were in Las Vegas and our neighbors were keeping an eye on him. Luckily this time he didn't go far, or if he did, he came back! He showed up on their porch ready for breakfast with the alley cats.
Attempt #3 - tie out leash inside the garage
We have a pole in the middle of our garage that we hooked the tie out leash to. As I said before, I felt terrible leaving him in the kennel when he got stressed out, so we thought the leash in the garage was a better option. He didn't escape this one, but he chewed a hole through the garage door so we didn't use this option for long.
Attempt #4 - custom kennel in the garage
We were ready for a permanent fix to this issue. We turned to my handy brother Jack for this! We made a trip to Menards and picked up the pieces we needed to fit in the corner of our garage. We wanted it to be in the garage so he has a safe place to go in the rain, snow, and cold. We used the walls for 2 sides of the kennel and then only needed 2 kennel panel pieces.
Plan A - installing 4 foot high fence pieces, a chain link side panel (wrong size but you get the point) and a heavy duty gate. It is very comical to think back to this step as we clearly did not know what Thor was capable of at this point. 4 feet tall? Of course he would jump over the top! It was a joke at how easy it was. Can't even count that as an escape!
Escape #3
Plan B - switched out those pieces and got 6 foot pieces, both chain link side panel and gate. Jack installed this when Luke and I were both at work. I got home and Thor was outside the kennel in the garage. I didn't know for sure Jack had put him in the kennel, so I put him in there and went inside to set down my stuff. I came back to the garage and he was already out. OK - clearly he was getting out, but how?! The kennel door was not open, no pieces broken or pushed out, and surely he couldn't jump that high to get over the top. I put him back in the kennel and hid behind the fridge in the garage to watch his antics, which I caught on video.
Plan C - re-installed the smaller 4 foot panel and gate and Jack built a shelf on top so he couldn't jump out. Unfortunately, his strength was too much for the chain link panel. He ripped that up instantly:
We put some leftover drywall pieces against the chain link to keep him contained. This moved his focus from the chain link panel to the gate. He could use his nose to push the complex lever up and get out of the kennel. We tried adding bungee cords, but he was still stronger. We tried Luke's bike lock, which worked if it was pulled tight enough. If there was any type of slack, he would first push the lever up with his nose and then push the gate out as far as it would allow. It was a surprise each and every day when we came home. Did we keep Thor contained or would he be out and roaming the garage!? As stated before, most times when he got out of the kennel he would stay in the garage or just let himself into the house.
*Funny fun fact: Luke got this bike lock in college and because he thinks he's hilarious, made the 4 letter code poop. When we were in Las Vegas, our neighbors wanted to go let out Thor and I avoided telling them the code at all costs. Thankfully I never had to tell her. LOL
Escape #4
One day, I received a text from a friend while I was at school. "I just saw a German Shepherd with a green collar running by Duncombe as I was dropping the girls off at school. I thought he might be yours." I'm sure it is, I thought to myself. I called Luke and he took over - as teaching 1st grade does not leave much flexibility to make phone calls. We believe someone at Duncombe found him and called the pound, as that is where Luke was able to pick him up from. I always feel the need to defend our attempts - I don't want to be seen as clueless or negligent owners! He was in the LOCKED kennel, in the garage, with the doors shut. How much more secure can you get?!
This was our reality for quite awhile. We tried our best to keep the bike lock pulled tight, but it was always a surprise - what would we find when we got home?
Escape #5 - the "fluke" escape
This escape has nothing to do with his kennel situation, it was truly a fluke. The tie out leash I linked earlier obviously did not do the job so we switched to this more heavy duty one. It kept him safe in the yard and allowed us to avoid the kennel situation when possible. He preferred to be outside so much more! One night before we went to bed, Luke let Thor out for a quick bathroom break. 5 minutes later he went to go get him and he was gone. The heavy duty leash snapped in half. UGH. We start searching, yelling his name throughout our neighborhood. I finally spotted him near Duncombe school down in the wooded area, running toward me. I thought to myself, thank you, God. But of course it's not that easy, he ran right past me.
This might be a good time to share Thor's predator-like tendencies. He is a very chill dog, but when he sees a squirrel, rabbit, deer, possum, etc. his senses are heightened and he is ready to catch it! This is the Husky in him. When we first adopted him I researched German Shepherd/Husky mix and found out they are called Gerbarian Shepsky. It listed out the different qualities of each breed, and I realized that although Thor looks more like a German Shepherd, he was the personality of a Husky. He was given to the shelter because of harming a piglet, he killed a badger in our yard, and almost a possum. We thought the possum was dead, but it played possum on us, LOL!
Back to the escape story - he ran right past me because his only priority was catching the rabbit he had his eye on! I followed him (or attempted to, he is fast!) He crossed the street and I saw him near a dentist clinic. There is a wooded area by the clinic's parking lot and I saw him enter it. I did not want to go into the woods alone (it is near midnight at this point) so I called Luke and waited for him to get there. I heard barking and I couldn't tell if it was Thor or another dog, or both. When Luke finally got over there, he informed me I had to go into the woods because he didn't have shoes on. LOL. He was so frantic to find Thor he never put shoes on!!!
I entered the woods and slowly approached the house where I heard the barking coming from. I was terrified! No sign of Thor - just 3 very scary looking/sounding dogs that looked like they wanted to kill me. I walked back towards Luke and we gave up for the night. From that wooded area, he most likely ran down to the river. We could've looked for hours and we both had to work in the morning. My cell # is on his collar, so I left my phone on loud and prayed we would get a call throughout the night. If we didn't, we planned to call around in the morning. Sure enough, I got a call at 3 AM from the FDPD. They found him in the parking lot of that dentist clinic. I met them at the precinct and brought him home. The officers were so nice and told me to call them if this ever happened again.
Luke saw deer around the neighborhood right when Thor went missing. We think he saw the deer and with the adrenaline rush of wanting to catch them, he snapped the leash. As I said, he keeps us on our toes!
Escape #6 - at the farm
Another escape that had nothing to do with his kenneling situation. It was a beautiful fall day and we decided to take Thor out to the Kersten Walnut Farm, or as we call it "Grandpa's farm". We wanted to let Thor roam as we walked along the trail, so we took his leash off. We had done this before down at the riverfront trail by our house with no issues, so we didn't anticipate having any issues at the farm. Wrong.
10 minutes into the walk, Thor saw a rabbit and off he went. Luke chased him off the trail and into the woods. After a few minutes, I realized I should probably join in on the search so I also left the trail. Now, this is a tree farm, so there are rows and rows of trees, but my dad only mows certain ones that we use to walk and drive. Other rows have extremely tall grass, thorn bushes, and prickly things. This is what we were pushing ourselves through to follow Thor. We walked and yelled for a long time before finally deciding he was nowhere to be found where we were. We decided to go back to the car to see if he was there. My Aunt Amy happened to be out there on a walk too, and saw him chasing 4 deer across the road. We got into the car to go look.
As we were pulling away, the neighbors across the street approached us and said they had just seen him in the valley. Sure enough, I called his name and up he ran. He must've been done chasing for him to surrender that easy. He got into the car covered in mud and prickly's and laid down in exhaustion. Our nice walk turned into a wild goose chase and we were all ready to go home! Needless to say, we do not trust him anymore off the leash.
Escape #7/8
I take that statement back, I do not trust him off a leash, Luke, however, has not learned his lesson. Although these stories happened months apart, I combine them in our memoir because they are the same scenario. Luke gets an hour lunch break most days, so he is able to swing home to let Thor out of the kennel for a bathroom break.
The first scenario happened within the first few weeks of adopting him (summer of 2017). He had just broken off the first tie out leash and we didn't trust him to be left outside when we weren't home, so he was kenneled. Luke made the mistake of not holding on to his collar as he walked him from the garage to the tie out leash in the yard, and off he went! Luke, in his dress pants and collared shirt, had to chase Thor down a block away. Luckily that's as far as he got! You think this would have taught him to hold onto his collar....
Clearly it didn't! A few months ago (winter of 2017), we had just gotten home from dinner and Luke let Thor out of the kennel, again without holding his collar. Thor saw a rabbit and darted after it. This time, into our neighbor's fenced in yard. This worked in our advantage because the fence kept him contained. I was able to meet him at the fence entrance before he took off down the street and caught his attention with the word treat. He must've been hungry, because he ran to the back door waiting for his treat.
I would like to say this will never happen again, but I can't be sure!
Escape #9
Back to the kennel situation, he continued to get out despite the bike lock, and we were fed up. We even tried a smaller cord bike lock thinking it would be easier to pull tight, but we could never get it tight enough to keep him contained. Luke realized there was a pinhole opening above where the lever opened up the gate. If we could find a padlock small enough to fit in the pinhole, he wouldn't be able to move the lever up - problem solved. And it was - for awhile.
Thor still tries his best to get the lever open. The small padlock we ended up finding uses a 3 digit number code to unlock. We usually only move 1 number out of the sequence for convenience's sake and in his attempts to escape, Thor is able to move the numbers with his nose. We joke that he is going to get lucky and someday we'll come home to the lever unlocked. Hasn't happened yet - and I hope it doesn't!
So although the padlock works, we've learned it can't be that easy! With Thor's intelligence, it is no surprise he knew he could no longer get out of the gate and therefore evaluated other ways to escape. Since the gate lever would no longer move, despite his attempts, he moved back to the chain link panel. The drywall piece was not connected in any way. It was simply leaned up against the kennel with a shelf holding it in place. Thor ripped up the chain link panel, knocked over the drywall and a shelf, and got into the house. Lovely. The idiot I am, I didn't give up hope that we would make it work. The next day I put him back in the kennel with the shelf right in the middle of the drywall to support it more. It was harder for him to get out, but he still managed, chewing a hole in the drywall and demolishing the shelf. Back to square 1. How are we ever going to keep him contained?!?
Now at this point, you may be asking, why can't he just stay in the house? Out of the many times Thor got out of the kennel and let himself into the house, most of them resulted in a mess. Doors scratched at. Bathroom garbage spilled out and items carried/hidden around the house (found used tampons in Luke's shoes). Pee in the basement (at least he knows to go there!?) Food left out on the counter eaten (including an entire container of puppy chow and bag of M&M's, yikes!) Kitchen garbage overturned and gone through (he made me debate ziplocing our coffee grounds in true Schmidt fashion - New Girl anyone!?). Moral of the story, he can't be trusted inside.
At this point, we are still attempting the custom kennel in the garage, but needed a new side panel. The reason we went with chain link in the first place is because they do not have the size we need in heavy duty paneling. The closest size is 5 feet in width, we need 3. We cannot cut the panel as we would lose the side support and Thor would probably be able to push his way out. I spent an hour on a snow day at Menard's debating my options (not many) and looking into custom ordering (not possible). I ended up buying a second heavy duty gate panel, which is 5 foot in width, but there is a side support down the middle where the gate and the panel separate. This allowed Jack to cut it basically in half without losing the side support. This piece wasn't quite 3 feet, but Jack was able to add some 2x4's to cover it.
This is our current set up. Cross your fingers I have no more escapes to report! Although, if this is the memoir after only 6 months, I have a feeling there will be more stories to tell. We love him so much though, he's worth it!
UPDATED 2/21/18
So much for heavy duty. I came home to Thor greeting me as my garage door opened. Luke never leaves him outside the kennel in the garage, so I knew something was up. I walked over to the kennel and saw the entire gate handle was missing. I did some investigating and found the handle on the other side of the garage. LOVELY! He somehow managed to rip off the handle from the gate pole. The piece is still in tact and the bike lock is still locking the handle from being opened. We are hoping we can find a bracket of some sort to reattach the piece.
xoxo, jenn
*most sources I linked are not exactly what we used, but close enough you get the idea!
Let's start from the beginning...
Although I did not grow up with a dog in my childhood home, I knew I wanted one as an adult (a German Shepherd to be exact!) Many friends and family members had dogs I grew to love and I feel they are such a nice addition to a family - adding another protective presence. My cousins' families always had big/masculine, but gentle dogs and I think this is where my dream of having a German Shepherd came from. Luke did grow up with dogs, his favorite one being a Collie.
We were not ready to deal with the responsibility of a puppy, so we were looking to adopt an older dog. I began looking in the summer of 2017, but as you can imagine, the breed I was looking for wasn't commonly found at shelters. I kept an eye on our local shelter's facebook page and searched other Iowa shelters with no luck. I sent Luke LOTS of dog listings, and we even visited a few at our local shelter, but none of them were a good fit for us.
When I saw Thor on our local animal shelter's page, I knew we had to act fast. A German Shepherd/Husky mix was not going to last long at a shelter! We visited him quite a few times and loved his demeanor. One big deciding question we had to ask, how is he with cats? We have 2 - Abe and Ollie. I was very nervous about this, seeing as he was given to the shelter for harming a piglet. We walked him through the cat area at Almost Home before bringing him home and his interactions were perfect. He happily wagged his tail the whole time! He gets along with both our cats, but more so with Abe. Ollie is the dominant animal of the house and in a way bullies Thor (pretty ironic seeing as Thor is much bigger). We did a lot of research about this introduction and found these steps to work for us.
How to introduce your dog to your cat(s):
1) Cats away, dog in.
We shut the cats away and took Thor through the house on a leash. This gave him a chance to get used to their smells and our home. We kept the leash on because he wasn't fixed yet and I was terrified he'd lift his leg to mark his territory. He didn't try.
2) Dog away, cats in.
We put Thor outside and let the cats out to smell his presence. We did this for the first week or so, keeping the cats away anytime Thor was in the house.
3) Leashed introduction.
Luke went in first to locate the cats and I brought Thor in on a leash. The cats had a less than friendly first reaction (arched backs, hair up) but were mainly just unsure of their new furry brother. This definitely helped Thor learn his place in our home. We did this for awhile before we could trust Thor to not chase them. In case you forgot how amazing I mentioned he is, he is a very chill dog. He learned to coexist with them, and he learned they are not like the pigs he chased at the farm. These ones will stop and hiss at him ;)
4) Make a special spot for the dog.
The first few months, we made a spot for him in the living and our bedroom using a blanket as a dog bed. This reinforced the fact he was not to get up and chase the cats as they walked by. He tends to have sudden movements when he moves his head or moves from laying to sitting, so this freaked out the cats at first, but they have also learned how to handle him being in our home. We still have the blankets out in attempts to keep his shedding hair in one spot, but we are not as strict about him using it.
The boys, as we refer to them, didn't take long to warm up to each other. This was taken the first week of adopting Thor:
Thor is an amazing dog! I still can't believe it all worked out. I mean seriously, isn't he so handsome!?
He is an amazing running partner - he loves being active with us.
He loves people.
He is very calm - literally lounges all day as long as there is someone home with him.
He is incredibly smart and strong. His intelligence and strength has made it very challenging to keep him contained. He has been apart of our family for 6 months now - and he has kept us on our toes the entire time. I wanted to document the tales of Thor, as with time the details of his escaping will become fuzzy. They are quite the tales, so I want to remember them forever!
How not to keep your strong and smart dog contained:
Attempt #1 - tie out leash
Thor grew up on a farm before he came to us, so we assume he roamed around outside quite a bit. He has a lot of anxiety with being contained in a small area, and we think it is because he probably never was as a puppy. Luckily, since we adopted him during the summer, we could leave him outside on a tie out leash most of the time. That is, until he got off his tie out leash (within the first week of adoption) and made us second guess this option.
Escape #1
I was running a few errands and hooked him up outside as I left. When I got home about an hour later, I didn't see him. He sometimes gets tangled in our bushes, so I went and pulled on his tie out leash. I was shocked when I kept pulling with no resistance, and quickly discovered he was not on the end of the leash. Utter terror. If you've ever lost your dog, you know this feeling. I ran around the house, yelling his name and looking for him. No signs. Of course my phone had died while running errands, so I ran inside to plug it in and call Luke for help, as my brain was not working properly under stress.
After talking with Luke, I got in my car and started driving around the neighborhood looking for him. Of course it was raining, but regardless I had my window down to yell. No luck. The scariest part for me was that the leash was in perfect condition and his collar was not left behind. How does a dog get off a leashed hooked to his collar without breaking anything? By being taken :(
I came back home to my charged phone to make some calls. I called all the vet clinics, the pound, the police department, the radio station, the dog catcher. I went back outside again looking for clues, hoping to find him. I noticed the front screen door was ripped apart. I've never been so happy to see destruction! This meant he wasn't taken. He was trying to get back into the house before he took off.
A few minutes later, I received a call from the dog catcher. He had just received a call about a German Shepherd at Duncombe (the old Fair Oaks) 2 blocks from our house. I told him I would meet him there. Frantically walking towards the school, I see Thor. Instant relief. Oh, and did I mention? He had just been neutered so he was wearing a cone, LOL. Quite the sight.
What we think happened.... As I said, it was raining. Luke said he remembered hearing a loud bang of thunder shortly before I called him about Thor missing. We now know that Thor gets spooked by storms. After hearing the thunder, he probably had an adrenaline rush and must've hit the leash hook just right to get his collar hook out of it and take off. He made his way over to the school, whose doors were wide open letting carpets dry. A janitor found him wandering the halls, in his cone.
All this happened within an hour's time. We were so glad to have him home! We no longer trusted the tie out leash as a viable option, so we moved to our next bright idea.
Attempt #2 - collapsible kennel
We borrowed a kennel similar to the link above, from Luke's parents to use when we adopted Thor. I hated leaving him in it. We would come home and the kennel would be covered in his slobber from the stress. It was the appropriate size for him, but didn't give him much room to move around. No surprise he tried with all his might to get out of it. He would use his nose to move the lever to open it. When we bungee corded that, he would push the kennel panels apart and escape through the top or side. We tried bungee cording the panels and it worked, sometimes.
Escape #2
He managed to escape this kennel many times, most being not a big deal as he would just stay in the garage. A few times we came home to him in the house. Despite the door being a pull door, he would open the door to get into the house, even when it was latched. Or other times, he would hit the garage door opener and take it upon himself to leave. The first time this happened was when we were in Las Vegas and our neighbors were keeping an eye on him. Luckily this time he didn't go far, or if he did, he came back! He showed up on their porch ready for breakfast with the alley cats.
Attempt #3 - tie out leash inside the garage
We have a pole in the middle of our garage that we hooked the tie out leash to. As I said before, I felt terrible leaving him in the kennel when he got stressed out, so we thought the leash in the garage was a better option. He didn't escape this one, but he chewed a hole through the garage door so we didn't use this option for long.
Attempt #4 - custom kennel in the garage
We were ready for a permanent fix to this issue. We turned to my handy brother Jack for this! We made a trip to Menards and picked up the pieces we needed to fit in the corner of our garage. We wanted it to be in the garage so he has a safe place to go in the rain, snow, and cold. We used the walls for 2 sides of the kennel and then only needed 2 kennel panel pieces.
Plan A - installing 4 foot high fence pieces, a chain link side panel (wrong size but you get the point) and a heavy duty gate. It is very comical to think back to this step as we clearly did not know what Thor was capable of at this point. 4 feet tall? Of course he would jump over the top! It was a joke at how easy it was. Can't even count that as an escape!
Escape #3
Plan B - switched out those pieces and got 6 foot pieces, both chain link side panel and gate. Jack installed this when Luke and I were both at work. I got home and Thor was outside the kennel in the garage. I didn't know for sure Jack had put him in the kennel, so I put him in there and went inside to set down my stuff. I came back to the garage and he was already out. OK - clearly he was getting out, but how?! The kennel door was not open, no pieces broken or pushed out, and surely he couldn't jump that high to get over the top. I put him back in the kennel and hid behind the fridge in the garage to watch his antics, which I caught on video.
Plan C - re-installed the smaller 4 foot panel and gate and Jack built a shelf on top so he couldn't jump out. Unfortunately, his strength was too much for the chain link panel. He ripped that up instantly:
We put some leftover drywall pieces against the chain link to keep him contained. This moved his focus from the chain link panel to the gate. He could use his nose to push the complex lever up and get out of the kennel. We tried adding bungee cords, but he was still stronger. We tried Luke's bike lock, which worked if it was pulled tight enough. If there was any type of slack, he would first push the lever up with his nose and then push the gate out as far as it would allow. It was a surprise each and every day when we came home. Did we keep Thor contained or would he be out and roaming the garage!? As stated before, most times when he got out of the kennel he would stay in the garage or just let himself into the house.
*Funny fun fact: Luke got this bike lock in college and because he thinks he's hilarious, made the 4 letter code poop. When we were in Las Vegas, our neighbors wanted to go let out Thor and I avoided telling them the code at all costs. Thankfully I never had to tell her. LOL
Escape #4
One day, I received a text from a friend while I was at school. "I just saw a German Shepherd with a green collar running by Duncombe as I was dropping the girls off at school. I thought he might be yours." I'm sure it is, I thought to myself. I called Luke and he took over - as teaching 1st grade does not leave much flexibility to make phone calls. We believe someone at Duncombe found him and called the pound, as that is where Luke was able to pick him up from. I always feel the need to defend our attempts - I don't want to be seen as clueless or negligent owners! He was in the LOCKED kennel, in the garage, with the doors shut. How much more secure can you get?!
This was our reality for quite awhile. We tried our best to keep the bike lock pulled tight, but it was always a surprise - what would we find when we got home?
Escape #5 - the "fluke" escape
This escape has nothing to do with his kennel situation, it was truly a fluke. The tie out leash I linked earlier obviously did not do the job so we switched to this more heavy duty one. It kept him safe in the yard and allowed us to avoid the kennel situation when possible. He preferred to be outside so much more! One night before we went to bed, Luke let Thor out for a quick bathroom break. 5 minutes later he went to go get him and he was gone. The heavy duty leash snapped in half. UGH. We start searching, yelling his name throughout our neighborhood. I finally spotted him near Duncombe school down in the wooded area, running toward me. I thought to myself, thank you, God. But of course it's not that easy, he ran right past me.
This might be a good time to share Thor's predator-like tendencies. He is a very chill dog, but when he sees a squirrel, rabbit, deer, possum, etc. his senses are heightened and he is ready to catch it! This is the Husky in him. When we first adopted him I researched German Shepherd/Husky mix and found out they are called Gerbarian Shepsky. It listed out the different qualities of each breed, and I realized that although Thor looks more like a German Shepherd, he was the personality of a Husky. He was given to the shelter because of harming a piglet, he killed a badger in our yard, and almost a possum. We thought the possum was dead, but it played possum on us, LOL!
Back to the escape story - he ran right past me because his only priority was catching the rabbit he had his eye on! I followed him (or attempted to, he is fast!) He crossed the street and I saw him near a dentist clinic. There is a wooded area by the clinic's parking lot and I saw him enter it. I did not want to go into the woods alone (it is near midnight at this point) so I called Luke and waited for him to get there. I heard barking and I couldn't tell if it was Thor or another dog, or both. When Luke finally got over there, he informed me I had to go into the woods because he didn't have shoes on. LOL. He was so frantic to find Thor he never put shoes on!!!
I entered the woods and slowly approached the house where I heard the barking coming from. I was terrified! No sign of Thor - just 3 very scary looking/sounding dogs that looked like they wanted to kill me. I walked back towards Luke and we gave up for the night. From that wooded area, he most likely ran down to the river. We could've looked for hours and we both had to work in the morning. My cell # is on his collar, so I left my phone on loud and prayed we would get a call throughout the night. If we didn't, we planned to call around in the morning. Sure enough, I got a call at 3 AM from the FDPD. They found him in the parking lot of that dentist clinic. I met them at the precinct and brought him home. The officers were so nice and told me to call them if this ever happened again.
Luke saw deer around the neighborhood right when Thor went missing. We think he saw the deer and with the adrenaline rush of wanting to catch them, he snapped the leash. As I said, he keeps us on our toes!
Escape #6 - at the farm
Another escape that had nothing to do with his kenneling situation. It was a beautiful fall day and we decided to take Thor out to the Kersten Walnut Farm, or as we call it "Grandpa's farm". We wanted to let Thor roam as we walked along the trail, so we took his leash off. We had done this before down at the riverfront trail by our house with no issues, so we didn't anticipate having any issues at the farm. Wrong.
10 minutes into the walk, Thor saw a rabbit and off he went. Luke chased him off the trail and into the woods. After a few minutes, I realized I should probably join in on the search so I also left the trail. Now, this is a tree farm, so there are rows and rows of trees, but my dad only mows certain ones that we use to walk and drive. Other rows have extremely tall grass, thorn bushes, and prickly things. This is what we were pushing ourselves through to follow Thor. We walked and yelled for a long time before finally deciding he was nowhere to be found where we were. We decided to go back to the car to see if he was there. My Aunt Amy happened to be out there on a walk too, and saw him chasing 4 deer across the road. We got into the car to go look.
As we were pulling away, the neighbors across the street approached us and said they had just seen him in the valley. Sure enough, I called his name and up he ran. He must've been done chasing for him to surrender that easy. He got into the car covered in mud and prickly's and laid down in exhaustion. Our nice walk turned into a wild goose chase and we were all ready to go home! Needless to say, we do not trust him anymore off the leash.
Escape #7/8
I take that statement back, I do not trust him off a leash, Luke, however, has not learned his lesson. Although these stories happened months apart, I combine them in our memoir because they are the same scenario. Luke gets an hour lunch break most days, so he is able to swing home to let Thor out of the kennel for a bathroom break.
The first scenario happened within the first few weeks of adopting him (summer of 2017). He had just broken off the first tie out leash and we didn't trust him to be left outside when we weren't home, so he was kenneled. Luke made the mistake of not holding on to his collar as he walked him from the garage to the tie out leash in the yard, and off he went! Luke, in his dress pants and collared shirt, had to chase Thor down a block away. Luckily that's as far as he got! You think this would have taught him to hold onto his collar....
Clearly it didn't! A few months ago (winter of 2017), we had just gotten home from dinner and Luke let Thor out of the kennel, again without holding his collar. Thor saw a rabbit and darted after it. This time, into our neighbor's fenced in yard. This worked in our advantage because the fence kept him contained. I was able to meet him at the fence entrance before he took off down the street and caught his attention with the word treat. He must've been hungry, because he ran to the back door waiting for his treat.
I would like to say this will never happen again, but I can't be sure!
Escape #9
Back to the kennel situation, he continued to get out despite the bike lock, and we were fed up. We even tried a smaller cord bike lock thinking it would be easier to pull tight, but we could never get it tight enough to keep him contained. Luke realized there was a pinhole opening above where the lever opened up the gate. If we could find a padlock small enough to fit in the pinhole, he wouldn't be able to move the lever up - problem solved. And it was - for awhile.
Thor still tries his best to get the lever open. The small padlock we ended up finding uses a 3 digit number code to unlock. We usually only move 1 number out of the sequence for convenience's sake and in his attempts to escape, Thor is able to move the numbers with his nose. We joke that he is going to get lucky and someday we'll come home to the lever unlocked. Hasn't happened yet - and I hope it doesn't!
So although the padlock works, we've learned it can't be that easy! With Thor's intelligence, it is no surprise he knew he could no longer get out of the gate and therefore evaluated other ways to escape. Since the gate lever would no longer move, despite his attempts, he moved back to the chain link panel. The drywall piece was not connected in any way. It was simply leaned up against the kennel with a shelf holding it in place. Thor ripped up the chain link panel, knocked over the drywall and a shelf, and got into the house. Lovely. The idiot I am, I didn't give up hope that we would make it work. The next day I put him back in the kennel with the shelf right in the middle of the drywall to support it more. It was harder for him to get out, but he still managed, chewing a hole in the drywall and demolishing the shelf. Back to square 1. How are we ever going to keep him contained?!?
Now at this point, you may be asking, why can't he just stay in the house? Out of the many times Thor got out of the kennel and let himself into the house, most of them resulted in a mess. Doors scratched at. Bathroom garbage spilled out and items carried/hidden around the house (found used tampons in Luke's shoes). Pee in the basement (at least he knows to go there!?) Food left out on the counter eaten (including an entire container of puppy chow and bag of M&M's, yikes!) Kitchen garbage overturned and gone through (he made me debate ziplocing our coffee grounds in true Schmidt fashion - New Girl anyone!?). Moral of the story, he can't be trusted inside.
At this point, we are still attempting the custom kennel in the garage, but needed a new side panel. The reason we went with chain link in the first place is because they do not have the size we need in heavy duty paneling. The closest size is 5 feet in width, we need 3. We cannot cut the panel as we would lose the side support and Thor would probably be able to push his way out. I spent an hour on a snow day at Menard's debating my options (not many) and looking into custom ordering (not possible). I ended up buying a second heavy duty gate panel, which is 5 foot in width, but there is a side support down the middle where the gate and the panel separate. This allowed Jack to cut it basically in half without losing the side support. This piece wasn't quite 3 feet, but Jack was able to add some 2x4's to cover it.
This is our current set up. Cross your fingers I have no more escapes to report! Although, if this is the memoir after only 6 months, I have a feeling there will be more stories to tell. We love him so much though, he's worth it!
UPDATED 2/21/18
So much for heavy duty. I came home to Thor greeting me as my garage door opened. Luke never leaves him outside the kennel in the garage, so I knew something was up. I walked over to the kennel and saw the entire gate handle was missing. I did some investigating and found the handle on the other side of the garage. LOVELY! He somehow managed to rip off the handle from the gate pole. The piece is still in tact and the bike lock is still locking the handle from being opened. We are hoping we can find a bracket of some sort to reattach the piece.
You can also see the drywall he's ripped out, slowly but surely, he's been renovating his kennel space :)
His face looks so sad. It's like he knows what he did.
He's too smart for his own good.
The tales of our escape artist continue!!
*most sources I linked are not exactly what we used, but close enough you get the idea!
Saturday, December 30, 2017
Tales of the Brick Beauty
I created this blog on a whim in college. Since then, I have grown and changed, as has the blog. I decided to change the title of it from Adventures of a Brown-Eyed Girl to Tales of the Brick Beauty for a few reasons:
#1 - The narrative is no longer only about me (the brown-eyed girl). I have a wonderful husband, house, pets, nephews, and hopefully children of our own soon.
#2 - We bought our home in June of 2017 and love sharing the history and renovations. I created a hashtag, #talesofthebrickbeauty and used it to track the updates and memories we've made. The 'brick beauty' has become it's nickname. Our lives are currently summed up with grad school and house projects, so what else would I blog about other than the house!?
#3 - I believe the tales of the brick beauty will be more than just renovation details someday. I hope this will be a place I can share advice, experiences, and memories of our home.
Our tales have only begun, and I look forward to adding to them in years to come! Thanks for following along.
xoxo, jenn
The Brick Beauty | Christmas 2017
Half-bath Reno
The half bath project started during the last days of October and we put the finishing touches on it in the last days of December. We love the way it turned out!
I didn't realize how bad I am at taking before photos until I went looking for them. I get so excited about the project, I don't even think to take a photo first! These first few photos are from before we even moved in. As you can see, the pink curtains gave the entire room a pink look! The toilet seat cover wasn't doing much either, that was the first change we made!
Before.
During.
As we did in the master, we used a handy steamer and scraper to remove the wallpaper.
Messy, but so much faster than a spray bottle.
Another amazing coincidence. Although - is it still considered a coincidence the second time it happens!? This room has been our 'next project' for months. I wanted to get it done last summer, but grad school had other plans. One night in October, in an attempt to avoid grad school, I began removing the wallpaper. During the removal process, we came across the date the wallpaper was put up. The same month we began taking it down, 22 years later! This is why old homes and history are so much fun. Amazing! We are right where we're supposed to be.
Photo on the left: date wallpaper was put up written on the wall.
Photo on the right: photo stamp of the night I started to remove wallpaper.
Decorative scalloping, lights, mirror, backsplash, countertop/sink, vanity - bye-bye!
Avoiding grad school pt. 2, prime!
We used a tinted primer (dark gray-ish color).
Decision time! Could not find the mirror size we needed, so we decided to make our own. 1st step, custom framing from Hobby Lobby. We chose the most simple frame with no detailing. For a 21x21 frame it was $56 (and that is with the 50% off discount)- a little more than we wanted to spend, but we didn't really have a choice. We took the custom frame to our local glass company, Webster Glass and they fit a piece of mirror inside the frame for $30ish.
Lights are from Menards. We chose a base type which was sold separately from the glass. This allowed us to piece together the exact light we were looking for. The glass is completely clear with Edison light bulbs, also found at Menards. I couldn't find the exact base, but it is similar to this one, only chrome.
Countertop was ordered from Onyx Collection through my Aunt Becky, who works for Ogden and Adams in Cedar Rapids. The Onyx Collection will send free samples which is so nice! We ordered 2 and ended up choosing pepper. Of course our vanity/opening is a custom size (gotta love old houses!), but Becky was able to get a custom order for a reasonable price. Here is the sample up against the black paint - LOVE!
After tearing off the decorative scalloping, Jack added a smooth edge board for a finished look.
Paint is from Sherwin Williams, tricorn black.
Fourth room we've painted, and we finally figured out how to paint behind radiators. LOL! Use saran wrap to cover the radiator and use a small roller to squeeeeeze back there.
75% done by Thanksgiving time. We were still waiting on the countertop to get in. We made it look as nice as we could for our house guests over the holiday!
Vanity top arrived first week of December - the project continued! We used a vanity from the bones pile at Ogden & Adams. My Aunt Becky was kind enough to gift it to us for free! Luke painted it and Jack cut the back off to fit the countertop once it arrived. Installation of the vanity was interesting because of the tight quarters, but superman Jack got it in! Mirror installation was the final touch - hung today by brother of the year.
After.
I spy... a piece of the old bathroom. Do you!?
Blinds are white faux wood from Menards.
Photographs by me.
Top - kayaking on Lake Francis in Minnesota this summer.
Middle - the Budweiser balloon my dad part-owns.
Bottom - our handsome pup, Thor, in our yard this summer.
This elegant little radiator is my favorite.
Another project crossed off the list!
xoxo, jenn
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