Swimming Pool Dream

I had a funny dream last night. We'd just somehow forgotten that our tiny new house had a gigantic indoor pool and hot tub in a poolhouse, and we stumbled upon it and invited everyone over to celebrate. Matt went out and bought about 15 lifejackets that looked like full superhero costumes for our guests to wear. Not everyone had one, there were three clown costume lifejackets and everyone else just went in wearing their regular clothes. It was a very joyful dream and it was one of those very realistic dreams where for the first couple seconds after you wake up you're still fuzzily thinking, 'Wow, that's awesome that my house has a massive pool! Oh no wait - was that a dream?'

So, this is what the interpretation seems to be (mostly from brilliantdreams.com):

To dream that you find or discover new rooms, suggests that you are developing new strengths and taking on new roles. You may be growing emotionally.
In the dream it wasn't an entirely new discovery, we had just somehow forgotten about it!

A swimming pool indicates that you will enjoy many social gatherings with good friends.

To see a pool of water in your dream, denotes that you will find much happiness and pleasure in love and marriage. Your social life will keep you busy.

If you see females swimming in the pool you will have luck with love, to see males you will have luck in business, and if you see both you will experience both types of luck.
There were both! :-)

Okay, the pool aspect is easy. I have been shamefully neglecting my social life and now I am working to rediscover it. Now it will be full of good friends, love, and business success. Fantastic! :-D

And now is when it gets complicated. Matt gave out lifejacket costumes of superheroes and clowns to our friends, but we didn't put any on. I did really want this one batwoman-looking costume that someone else put on before I could get to it...

To dream that you are wearing a life jacket, symbolizes security and reinforcement. You are in need of some support.

So we are giving support to our friends?

To dream that you are a superhero, indicates your above-average talents, ideas, and abilities you may not realized you possessed.

Do we somehow give our friends above-average ideas or talents?

To see a clown in you dream, symbolizes absurdity, light-heartedness, and a childish side to your own character.

To dream that you are wearing a costume, signifies that you are putting on a facade toward others. Your true self is not being revealed and you are not being completely honest with people around you.

Matt and I weren't wearing costumes, but he provided them. Matt tends to see the good in people, even to a fault, so does that mean he is tricking himself into believing that his friends have above-average talents? I don't particularly like that interpretation. He was handing them out in a joyful way, not as a way of hiding. In the dream it felt more like he was telling our friends he appreciated their talents and wanted to encourage them.

Well, it was a fun dream to have, even if the costume lifejacket bit is a little complicated! I love the fact that I've stumbled upon my "pool" of old friends, and this dream really reflected that.

Mom's Bathroom is Done!

Here's the photo album for Mom's bathroom. We'll be adding a couple more photos (including "before" pix) and a video soon.

http://picasaweb.google.com/HaydenTransformations/RussellBath

It looked like this before the remodel:

http://newhaydens.blogspot.com/2007/05/now-its-my-moms-bathrooms-turn.html

I Picked up a Hitchhiker Today...

I picked up a free cabinet on the side of the road today, and I'm pretty stoked about its potential. Matt is, uh, skeptical. He used four letter words to describe it, haha! I'll keep you guys posted, though, because I am going to make this an awesome little desk cabinet!

There's a cutting board slot, so I'll make a replacement for extra work space when needed. I like the drawer pulls, they look friendly. Someone had apparently taped the drawers shut (WTF?), which of course wrecked the finish. It needs to be stripped down and stained or painted anyway (I'll decide which when I see the condition of the wood under the stain). The variety of drawer sizes is exciting, so it should be a handy dandy little office organizer!

It's sans countertop, so I'll call some granite fabricators and it should be easy to find an inexpensive little scrap to top it off.

I can't wait to get started on it and see what can be done with it!

Logo Choices

So, we hired a logo designer to come up with a few logo ideas for us. We wanted a phoenix to represent us because we bring new life to stale homes and it made sense with our name, Hayden Transformations. They sent us seven first draft designs but we've narrowed it down to these two:

Matt prefers this one:
I like the grey circles behind the phoenix and it's very eye catching, but I'd rather it be less angular and I want a better font, one in all caps that looks more like drafting lettering. Matt loves it the way it is.

And I favor this one:
This one doesn't feel entirely finished to me, but I can't put my finger on what to change...

Both of these designs will be revised before they're finalized (like adding in the f in transformations, haha), but which concept do you guys like best, and what revisions would you make?

Check out our Web Portfolio!

We started an online portfolio of some of our remodels, and we'd love it if you guys checked it out! We're still perfecting it and a few projects are missing, but there is already a lot to see on there.

http://picasaweb.google.com/HaydenTransformations

And, since I'm way behind on posting the California remodel photos, check out that album here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/HaydenTransformations/BeniciaRemodel

Hope you all enjoy! :-)

My "Spirit Animal"

I saw this on someone else's blog and it looked like a fun quiz, and it was! Let me know if you guys take this quiz - it'd be interesting to see what everyone else comes up with!

Water Conservations Tips

Water conservation is one of the major environmental issues for us to be aware of. Not only is it important that we watch our usage but it can save you a lot of money on your water bill.

Lots of great tips here:

http://www.monolake.org/socalwater/wctips.htm

http://www.h2ouse.org/

OUR HOUSE!!!!!!!!!

We bought a house this weekend! The photos don't do it justice - it's very cute, lets in tons of natural sunlight and has a fantastic 180 degree mountain view and is on a third of an acre! Not to mention tons of storage, a great neighborhood, and lots of room to expand and improve (but it's not a "fixer-upper"). It's the perfect house for us at this stage and we're so happy!

Now we're just trying to make them let us move in before my birthday. :-)

http://www.rombakhrealestate.com/Properties.php/Details/2/#viewdetail

A couple of different photos:
http://johnlscott.com/PropertyDetail.aspx?GroupID=43886164&ListingID=29908982&Sort=0

Now it's my Mom's Bathroom's Turn!

We started on my mom's master bathroom this morning. It'll be a fast lane project because they want us to finish the entire project while they're out of town, a total of eight days. This will be a squeeze but totally doable. We started demolition this morning (my favorite part!), and it's looking good!

10:00AM

3:30PM

I love the potential in a stripped-down room - so many possibilities!

Mom chose a neutral color palette because they're talking about selling in a few years. This is the chosen wall/ shower tile and border (the colors are a lot warmer in person). I'll post updates soon!

Logo Suggestions?

Hi everyone!

Matt and I just registered our business name, and I need to get business cards and tee shirts printed soon but we need your help designing a logo! Our name is Hayden Transformations, and so I thought something like a magic wand or a hammer with rays coming off it like a magic wand or something, but Matt isn't sold on that idea. Does anyone have any genius ideas to share? :-)

Knit Veggies!

I finished my crop of knit vegetables for Eli's birthday, and I wanted to show them to you guys because I'm very proud of myself. ;-) I'm getting better at knitting little toys, which is so exciting because my first couple tries (Logan the teddy bear and one of the two turtles I'm STILL working on) were, uh, not so good! But these veggie patterns were soooo easy and fast to knit (except the celery you'll see if you click on the Garden Variety link below - that just didn't turn out...).

Ta-da!

Baby Vegetables (These are knit in a size 8 needle so they were really fast!)

Garden Variety (I knit these in a size 4 needle so they'd be smaller to match with the Baby Vegetables)

What I Love About Eli

It's also time for Eli's birthday list! Here we go:

Eli is:

Social and friendly to everyone!
Inquisitive and very intelligent.

He's a sharp-dressed little man (and, as ZZ Top tells us, every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed man). ;-)

Really excited by yarn, which makes a knitting auntie's heart proud! (I actually had to cut him some of my yarn because he was so interested in it while I was trying to knit. He then ran around with a scrap of orange yarn, screaming with delight. What an adorable nut, haha!)

He loves Tink as much as she loves him. ;-)
Especially cute when he's sleeping, as all babies are! ;-)

Happy birthday, Eli!

What I Love About Sherry

Here's my stepmom's birthday list!

Sherry is:

Sweet and sensitive.

A nurturer.


Silly (is that not the scariest dress you've ever seen? Haha!).


A good listener.


Protective of the ones she loves.

Happy birthday, Sherry!

What I Love About Sarah

It was Sarah's birthday recently, and so it's her turn to be admired!



Sarah is:

Fun-loving.


Always up for anything.


A great dancer.


An artistic soul.

Love ya, Sarah! Happy 24th!

(Shameless) Birthday Wish List

A couple people asked what I wanted for my upcoming birthday, so here it is for those select few. :-)

• I want Home Depot gift cards more than anything else!
• Tea infusers (the more the merrier) & loose tea
• A subscription to Greensource Magazine ($20)
• Yarn store gift certificate
• Gift certificate to DiscoverU
• Anything off my Amazon.com wish list, especially CDs (use the tool bar to sort by priority - also, click on the item so you can see the used prices - I don't mind used!)
• 

Please, no knick-knacks! ;-)