Family 'angles' for home project

Cheetahs and tigers rule in Becca's room.

Everything from her bedspread to the prints on the wall pay homage to the jungle cats.

After another long weekend of home improvements, Joni and I finished Becca's room make-over, leaving us with a sense of accomplishment, sore muscles and exhaustion.

Gone is the circus wallpaper and the blues and whites that once served to make the room a nursery.

Refurbishing the room took longer than we had anticipated. We probably still wouldn't be done with it were it not for the help of tool-friendly friends.

Home improvements look so much easier on television. Of course, it helps to have the services of professional carpenters and designers.

Just cutting a 45-degree angle on a baseboard requires serious concentration when you're still trying to figure out all the bells and whistles on your table saw.

Our dining room table was replaced with a table saw in recent weeks. We sold our old dining room set in anticipation of replacing it with a family heirloom. In the transition period, we've made do with a table saw.

It cuts great, but there's no room for plates and glasses.

I suggested we keep it in the dining room through Thanksgiving. That way we could cut the turkey in a heartbeat.

But Joni decided to banish the table saw to the garage in favor of a card table for now.

Our home improvement binge -- we're still in the process of transforming our home -- has made us frequent visitors to the local hardware store.

Even our kids are starting to know their way around.

It's amazing just how much stuff is manufactured just so Americans can spend their weekends and weeknights fixing up their homes. I know Joni and I have done our part to help the local economy ever since we embarked on our home renovation project.

Joni, Becca and Bailey generally accompany me to the hardware store. If I were there by myself, I'd have a tendency to linger and window shop down every aisle.

Joni makes sure I stay on task even during the Rams football game.

Now that our sixth-grader has her revamped room, our youngest daughter -- second-grader Bailey -- wants her room redone. She says she wants painted hand prints placed all over her walls.

It all sounds pretty messy to me. But you can't beat new paint when it comes to dressing up a room.

Of course, Alaskan resort owner Bernie Karl doesn't need to paint his hotel. He has an ice hotel at Chena Hot Springs.

The hotel will be 110 feet by 400 feet and include seven rooms. Its 8-foot-thick walls of snow and ice will curve together into a Gothic arch-shaped ceiling 6 feet thick. It will be reinforced with laminated wood arches, metal bands, chicken wire and refrigeration lines.

When it comes to business, you can only trust Mother Nature to a point.

This hotel, expected to open soon after Thanksgiving, comes with a high price tag. Visitors will pay $878 per room for a two-night stay.

Personally, I'm not a fan of ice unless it's in my drink. The idea of sleeping in a room of ice sounds about as inviting as sleeping in a coffin.

Besides, for that price, I could buy some terrific tools. An ice chisel isn't one of them.

Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.