Lots of work done!

Day 59 was a busy day...building the French drain beneath the house began.  This was how it looked under the house after two days of no rain at all:

You think we might need a drain?  Here's the pipe, as well as a little gem they found under the house:

It's kinda creepy, actually.  I'm waiting for them to find a dead body under there, too.

Day 59 also found us with a fully functioning utility sink and hot water heater, as well as a big nasty empty space in our old laundry room.  Again, notice the orange shag carpet on the step at the bottom of the last picture.

Day 60:  Let there be light!


Closet light:

Sink lights:

Over-the-bed recessed lights with a dimmer switch:

Shower light:

Potty light and fan:

Motion flood lights:

As if that wasn't enough, there was more work on the waterproofing:

Day 61: PAINT!

I also realized on Day 62 that the electrician had actually installed an outlet, a light, and a light switch under our crawl space.  Handy!

Day 63: no pictures, just that we got the preliminary sketch of our closet and picked out our color.  We also picked out the incidentals - towel racks and bars and new toilet lid that isn't cheap plastic.

Day 64: final (I hope) waterproofing under the house:

Day 65: Washer and dryer were installed, and all those pesky bathroom hooks and bars and rings were put up.

Day 66: Hardwoods went down and will be stained to match the existing floors in the hallway.

Days 67 & 68: Rounds 1 and 2 of sanding and staining:

Day 69: shoe mold in, carpets and closet installed, and frame built for our bathroom mirror.  The closet is amazing, more incredible than I imagined it would be.  I'm totally stressed about organizing it - I've decided not to move in in one day.  Russell can do whatever he wants, but I will only be able to avoid a meltdown if I can move my things in at my (organized) leisure.

Day 70: Random patching and odds of ends of things (brackets for hanging clothes in the laundry room, for example) and hanging/caulking of shower doors

Day 71: more odds and ends

Day 72: a nice surprise after I got out of the shower but before I could brush my teeth - the water was turned off at the meter.  Don't worry, I didn't go to work smelling like dog's breath.  They turned the water back on right after they disconnected the water to the old laundry room and old washing machine.  LET ME POINT OUT AGAIN, this grossness is where we washed.  our.  clothes.  With orange shag carpet.

Also on Day 72, handles on the bathroom drawers so that I don't have to break a nail trying to open them now.

Day 73: cleaning up the construction mess (most of these pictures are boring, but even I didn't take a picture of a clean bathroom) and removal of all the construction paper.  I can finally let Emma crawl down the hallway!!

Oh, we also passed a plumbing inspection on Day 73, which was so fast that Lola couldn't comprehend that they weren't still in the house.  Drove.  Me.  Crazy.

Next post will be about Emma, I promise.

Well, I've done it

So far, my Friday morning has gone like this:

Do any of you have those little old lady neighbors (or perhaps it's your mom...or your grandmother) who go outside first thing in the morning in their (usually) pink robe and matching nightgown and slippers to get the paper?  They got their hair set a few days ago, so they wake up pretty much ready to go, with a little teasing.

Well today was my first foray into old-lady-land.  I had to move my car out of the driveway because the painters are painting the exterior of our house.  The boss said, "Nothing like somebody dragging you out of your house in your bathrobe first thing in the morning."  And it occurred to me that if anyone drove down the street (which is the main street in our neighborhood and our house is less than a mile from the entrance to the neighborhood), they would see a glimpse of me in 50 years: in a hot pink bathrobe (because the nightshirt I was wearing was totally inappropriate by itself).  Sperrys instead of slippers.  My pajamas did not match my robe, and I wasn't getting the paper....but it was a glimpse.

Walking back from where I parked my car, I realized how serious things had gotten at the house: 5 vehicles, 4 men on ladders, and 2 men installing electrical-type stuff.  WE. ARE. SO. CLOSE.

As for Emma's Friday morning off, it has been a drive-Momma-crazy morning.  I checked my email, and Emma wanted to sit in my lap.  The word laptop takes on a new meaning at our house.  Emma loves to get in my lap while I'm on the computer at the kitchen table.  And it usually ends in frustration on both our parts.  This morning's interaction went like this:

(I log in to my email.)

"No, press dis button.  Dis one. DIS ONE!  DIS! ONE!"  (She pushes CTRL.  My password is now wrong.)

On the verge of tears: "No, dat's wrong!  What you do?" (Really?  I let you get in my lap, that's what I did.)

So I'm on my email...

"No, go der!  Over der!  Go der!  Over der!  Over der!"

"Emma, I will go over there when I am finished reading what's right here."

"Mason's pirates!"

"Where do you see Mason's pirates?"

"OVER DER!  LOOK!  WOOK!" (She beats on the computer screen as though beating it will turn the laptop screen into a touchpad screen.  She hits it so hard, the laptop flips over and knocks over the salt shaker.  Salt goes everywhere, but I can't see it on the tablecloth.)

"Oops!  You spilled it!"

"No, YOU spilled it, Emma.   But I have to clean it up.  Thanks."

"Cwean it up, Mommy."

End laptop session.

No one cried, including myself.  And now I am happily blogging while Emma plays with her toys in the den.  This will last 5 minutes, especially if she realizes I'm back on the computer.

But here's a moment that makes all my mommy frustration ok and worth it.  Emma snuggled in the bed with us this morning and asked me for some water.  Upon returning with the water, Emma suddenly had no interest in it because the only thing she cared about was hugging me so hard, so immediately, and for so long that I was still standing beside the bed and my back was starting to hurt from leaning over.  Totally worth all the "Cwean it up, Mommy" and "No, dat's wrong.  What you do?" comments.

This Old (Crappy) House

As I mentioned in my last post about the addition, some water issues were discovered underneath the existing house.  Today it got a little worse, as our contractor discovered a pretty large gap (a GAP, people, not a crack) where the concrete driveway/patio meets the brick of the house.  So there's something else to fix.

Before the pressure washing could begin to prep for painting all the brick, all the little things like hose reels, old nails, etc., had to be taken out/off of the brick.  Our contractor noticed the backside of some wall anchors coming through the exterior brick.  Turns out those are the anchors for the shelves of our current laundry room (which happens to be the outside, only inside - you'll see in just a minute).  So all the shelves and their contents had to come down.  Weird.

And now our bonus room/storage space and old laundry room look like this:

See what I mean down below?  The outside...but it's inside.  Ugh.  And take a peek at the very bottom of the picture - the step down into the laundry room is covered in orange shag carpet.  There are no words.  So to make it a perfectly hideous room, I added an old oriental rug of my parents' to cover the bare concrete floor.

So on to the new house!  The following things were done while we were on vacation that you can't see: gas connected to the new hot water heater, vapor barrier put underneath the whole house, and measurements for shower glass were taken.

Here are the things you can see completed on Days 53, 54, 55, & 56:

Shower heads installed and all tile and grouting finished.  I know the shower heads look puny, but Russell and like concentrated water.  I have no interest in bathing under a rain shower head...just stand outside these days if that's what you're going for.  And see that low shelf in the corner, ladies?  Perfect for shaving.

Countertop and undermount sinks were installed:

Day 57: faucets installed and mirrors purchased:

Day 58: utility sink and faucet ready for installation and pressure washing the exterior of the house:

As exciting as the work on the house has been this week, I do miss our time at the beach last week...times like this:

Ok, so not a flattering picture of Russell, but no one will look great asleep, crammed on a love seat with a 5-year-old.  But it's still the best feeling in the world...our sweet little Mason.

So back to reality - Emma still calls the addition, "the mess."  And she still wants to go see the mess.  I can't wait to have our bedroom haven.  There will be no worries about Emma getting wedged between furniture back there, no mommy and daddy toes being near-severed by wheelchair or stander wheels, and no more worries that Emma will fall down the shag carpet-covered step into the laundry room.  And as for the closet, I'm looking forward to having ALL my clothes in the same room in which I sleep, which hasn't happened for me since September 2011.

Oh, to end this post on a funny note: Russell's temporary garment rack holding his bare necessities in clothing was wedged between the bed and the wall in our temporary room.  Until it broke and came crashing down on top of him in our sleep on Saturday night.  I'm so thankful that my delightful husband didn't jump, curse, yell...he laughed.  A gut chuckle at 4:30 in the morning.  He's a blessing, that one.