And there was sheetrock...

Sheetrock crew showed up at 7 AM this morning to hang the sheetrock.  A cacophony of sawing, banging and screwing ensued for a sum total of less than 2 hours.  After that, a knock on the basement door let me know that our little job was complete, they needed to get off to their next engagement.  Wow, that was fast.

Weekend with Daddy

Erin is off at school this weekend so Xander and I are on our own till Sunday afternoon.  I stayed home from work today and Xander and I got to play and have fun.  It was really nice today so we were able to go outside for a little while and play on the strider bike.  There is still some snow and ice on the north side of the cul-de-sac and Xander had great fun pushing his strider bike across the ice and into the snow banks.  Getting snow caked to the tires was a particularly cool experience.

Xander and I got invited to "family happy hour" by the Klingemanns tonight. We went to Lucky Pie Pizza in Louisville. I hadn't been there before, super fun. They had a great lounge area where the kids could play, bounce on the sofas, and push the ottomans all over the place. For a moment I thought that Xander and Treyden were setting up to "joust" each other with the ottomans, I could just see them pushing those ottomans running full bore at each other and colliding in giggles. We did decide that was probably getting out of hand and nipped that one in the bud. Pizza as always was a hit with Xander, and afterwards we couldn't help a visit to the ice cream place next door. Not only did they have little cows for the kids to ride and bounce around on, but the ice cream was pretty yummy too!

The Meas

There has been a lot of construction around the house and, as a result, the measuring tape has been in use a lot lately.  Xander finds this device absolutely fascinating.  We get it out, extend it, have intense discussions about it, reposition it, discuss more, and then it magically retracts with a snap!  A truly enchanting device that no child could resist.  As Xander seems somehow unable to get out the second syllable of meas-ure, he has dubbed it The Meas.  Anyway, no matter where we put the thing, eagle eye manages to spy it and starts a litany of meas meas meas meas.  The resulting antics I'm sure would be hilarious to an outside viewer.  We proceed to pull out the measuring tape and go around measuring all sorts of things in the house for Xander's edification.  I can probably recite to you the dimensions of counter tops, doors, windows, sofas, and toys at this point with out even having to measure them but that, of course, is beside the point.  Fortunately he doesn't yet want it to go to sleep with him.  I'm standing firm there, you have to the draw the line somewhere, if only I could find that darn measuring tape.  Xander....

-Jake

Wrenchin'

Shocks on the Jeep have been a problem since I bought it.  They weren't mounted properly to begin with, and really weren't the right length.  I tried to make some minor modifications but in the end finally decided that they needed to be replaced.  I was pretty sure that this job would be easy...  I'd had the front shocks off before, and the rears were pretty straight forward.  Of course, the first bolt on the rear shocks that I tried to remove completely snapped off.  Unfortunately the stud is welded into the axle, so it wasn't easily replaced by me.  Fortunately my new favorite 4x4 shop fixed it easily and quickly.  The other 3 shocks went smoothly.  I discovered that one of the rear shocks was completely blown, no wonder the rear end felt so rough.  Rides much better now.

Xander of course sees daddy working with the tools regularly, as a result whenever I get out my tools, he gets out his tools.  Always ready to help!

Mommy Time!

Xander and Blitz the Horse

Xander has recently decided that he should be able to ride Blitz.  I'm not sure where he got this idea, but he thinks that it is pretty fun.  Blitz is amazingly patient about the whole endeavor.  Xander hasn't managed to actually ride Blitz, but he sure likes to sit on him and bounce up and down.  Good horsey, I mean doggie!

New Shoes!

Xander has a wonderful pair of big warm fuzzy snow boots, that he just doesn't seem to fit.  We have been struggling on what he can wear when he goes out in the snow to play.  Recently we found a pair of rubber rain boots in his closet that we got from a friend that, although they seem huge, actually fit him really well!  He loves to go out in them and stamp in the snow and puddles, but he still gets upset when he gets snow on the tops of his boots.  He obsessively wants to wipe the snow off, but then his hands get cold...  Oh, the problems of a toddler!

Orange Bowl!

Xander rarely watches TV, in fact this may be the first time he has ever watched TV at home, but we put on the Orange bowl and he thought it was pretty interesting (for at least 10 minutes).  I"m not sure he realized that the black box could light up!  The game turned pretty bad for VT in the second half, but was fun to watch none the less.

Blessed Bellies

Audra, Amy and I are due within a few weeks of each other and have really enjoyed bonding over our pregnancies.  As a celebration, we took the day off from "mommying" and had SarahKate Butterworth come over to Audras to paint our bellies in henna.  We snacked on healthy fare, laughed, and enjoyed watching the others get "made over."

Jake will be taking another photo of us after the bellies "cure" over the weekend but here we are with the paste still on. 

It was a joyful, fun day with great friends!

All fixed...

All fixed.... now on to the rest of the house!

Screw the pipes

One of the things we did this week was find a used microwave that would fit over our range- it is a bit dated, but worked well, and we couldn't beat the price.  Jake rarely lets a project sit for more than a day (note our speed in going from "should we?"  to "half done" on the basement).  We mounted the microwave late on Thursday night- an easy job for 2 engineers with lots of tools including a studfinder, right?

Well, as you can see from Jake's face, it didn't go well- one of the mounting screws needed to be placed just on the edge of a stud- which forced the bracket too far over.  Trying a second time, we located a bonanza of studs there to choose from, and opted to put a few extra screws in to help the bracket stay in the correct position.... except our stud finder is also a very excellent copper pipe finder...  those weren't studs!

You may not deem the enterprise lucky at this point but you'd be wrong- at least that is how we're determined to look at it.  We had several things on our side.  1) We punctured the pipes twice and the second time it was obvious- a hiss of water quickly told us we had a problem- no slow leaks to surprise us 6 months down the road with major drywall damage.  2) We know where the water shut off valves are 3) If this had happened next week, we would have had brand new drywall up for the basement ceiling and would have potentially ruined it.  4) Our plumber, who was to have finished his work Thursday, was called away on an emergency- meaning bright and early Friday morning, we had a plumber, and no need to call!  5) Our plumber is a good guy and didn't even charge us for the fix, since he was already doing the basement.

So at this point we have the patch in place and will be able to finish installing the microwave (and replace the cabinet) this weekend.  My guess?  It'll be done before noon on Saturday :) 

Basement Update

Remember that pretty new plumbing job and all those white pipes?  Gone.  Here's the even newer version.

And for our next magic trick... all the pipes are now hidden... this was a lot of work by a lot of good guys, and looks fantastic.  No one but our loyal blog followers will ever know how much work went into our simple little basement ceiling.  We are now ready for our rough inspecion: framing, HVAC, electrical, and plumbing.

Oh, and lest we forget, here is a shot of those same shelves that Jake was organizing 2 weeks back...It isn't as bad as it looks right now, but we are a lot more packed-in.  When the construction clears and we can put the tools away and the bed where it belongs, this'll look a lot less cluttered.

Basement Update... we have "walls!"

The framing begins...

Entrance to the new bathroom

 

 Main area- crawlspace access will move, as will all the pipes for water and HVAC.

 Here's a close-up of all those pipes- yes, it'll be a pain to move them, but we can eliminate soffits with the extra effort - and it'll feel less like a "basement" room.

The wall here had to be furred-out to the width of the I-beam, which is part of the soffit-removal effort and also hides the brown metal support pole seen on the left side of the wall if you look carefully). 

Our first plumber was very good but we made a mistake when we decided on our framer *after* the plumber started work.  The framer is awesome and has pushed  get me an extra 4 inches of width to the bathroom and an extra 5 inches of depth, which equates to a wider, more comfortable  shower door- but it also means that all the rough plumbing is getting redone, and now with a new plumber.  Ouch.    Here you see one of the tricks we've played to get the extra space- taking a chunk out of the foundation's footer so we can move the pipes back to the wall (The "old" plumbing shown before it was ripped out).

As we go, we are putting a lot of effort into insulation and air-sealing to make the room warm and comfortable, and energy efficient. 

There are different kinds of "firsts"

This is one of those "firsts" I could have wished to avoid.  It had to happen eventually.

I have been frustrated, overly tired, exasperated and even annoyed at Xander before- but he is a good, good kid, and I almost immediately realize that from his world-view, he is just trying to communicate and act the best way he can.  It is hard to be upset at him for more than the moment.

Today though, I admit it, I got honestly angry for the first time.  Xander somehow got a sharpee and in the time it took for me to write an email replying to a career prospect, one that I was so excited about I "just couldn't wait" on, he did serious damage to my custom staircase.

Luckily, rubbing alcohol has taken most of the ink off, and the rest we'll be able to salvage with some sandpaper and new varnish.  Xander spent 10 minutes in time-out while I cleaned (and cried)...probably too long for someone his age, but it was really more for me than him.

I did get a photo of some of the damage - you'll have to excuse the poor photography on this one- for obvious reasons, I wasn't going to spend any extra time on the photo composition or focus.

On the bright side, I think Xander is starting to like art projects more.

Starting the New Year with a Bang

Really it was more of a thud thud thud thud thud sound.  Xander took his first ever top to bottom fall down a flight of stairs.  Ouch.  I was working in the basement and Erin was in the office, we both realized that something was wrong by the third thud, it wasn't a ball going down the stairs.  I scooped Xander up nano-seconds after he hit the ground, and Erin wasn't far behind- she moves pretty fast (when she needs to) for a lady in her last trimester.  The little guy was pretty worked up, but shook it off amazingly quickly.  I was all ready for an ER visit, but there were no broken bones, and honestly not even much in the way of bruises.  This kid is made of pretty tough stuff.  This fall is a result of Xander starting to want to go down the stairs like a big boy, and walk each step.  He usually is very careful, and on the other set of stairs he can hold on the balusters but, there is nothing low enough to hold onto on the basement stairs.  He doesn't seem much concerned about the fall though.  Within about 15 minutes he was ready to go back down the stairs, although this time he wanted to hold Mommy's hand while he walked down.  There seem to be few lasting effects- he has been playing all day, and wearing Dad out, while Erin has had some quiet time to nurse a viscious cold she got yesterday.  Here's a shot of Xander riding Aslan the Lion and roaring away this afternoon.

-Jake