Rainy Weekend Blues

And now for your local on the blog: Windy with bands of heavy rain showers along with some thunder. Low 59F. Winds E at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 90%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Locally heavier rainfall possible.

Tonight's forecast? Same. Tomorrow's forecast? Same. Sunday's forecast? We're sorry, the page you requested was not found on weather.com. So Sunday has no forecast!

Obviously, not roofing weather. But the good news is, the guys were nice enough to come over on Wednesday and Thursday after work and finish the farmer's porch roof. Thus leaving the house water tight and ready to survive the weekend. I haven't even been able to grab a pic since it's been getting dark earlier and earlier. But I was able to stand under the porch this morning on my way out and not get wet! A good sign.

The rest of the weekend is obviously going to be a wash out. Mike promised our neighbor he'd work on his tiller and make pickles on Saturday. Meanwhile I've got the girls coming over in the evening to make halloween party invites. They'll be staying over into Sunday, so I'm sure we'll just continue to hang out and do... stuff. I don't know yet.

I'm still trying to get over the fact that this is the last weekend of September. It's not easy.

We Interrupt this HouseBlog for an Important Announcement

I made the official myspace announcement just a couple days ago... so I figure it's time for the next step - official blog announcement. Let me begin with a demonstrative aid:


Does that say it all or what? I made this announcement on myspace and posted the following blog, which I will paste here:

Well, if the profile pic didn’t give it away – here’s the big exciting news: I’m pregnant.

I feel more than a little awkward making an official announcement like this – on myspace of all places. But it’s the quickest way to announce to everyone I don’t get to talk to or see very often, if ever now adays. And really this avoids all gossip and friends hearing it from friends of friends and not from me.... You know how those things go. Then I get about a million confirmation calls or the old, “Hey, I just heard the weirdest thing...” So, for everyone who thinks this is bizarre, me included, that’s your reason.

So the first question after the initial shock is usually, “How far along are you” or “When are you due?” Well, I’m most likely about 8 weeks, though I haven’t even had my first doctor’s appointment yet, so I can’t say anything for sure. I will most likely give birth in May, I would imagine. That’s perfect for me, since pregnancy in the hot humid summer months can’t be fun...

The second question usually involves Mike. How’s he taking it? Well, a lot better than me. You have to remember that I’m a psychotic worrier and general stress ball. At first, I was just freaked out about everything.. Mike, he was just happy. I said to him, Aren’t you worried? And he said, No, I’m just happy! (Easy for him to say!) Nevertheless, my stress and freaking out has calmed as I’ve researched, told more people, and gotten the support of friends, family, and co-workers.

The third question revolves around how I’ve been feeling. In a word: tired. In three words: out of it. My brain has totally left the building. But I’m thankful that I’m not too nauseous. Sometimes my stomach feels uneasy, but never queasy – if that makes any sense. I found I’ve been forgetful, ditzy... Kind of in that I-haven’t-gotten-enough-sleep mindset. I sleep and relax for most of the weekends – this in contrast to my usual busy bee attitude. It’s been quite a change. Friends have said I seem distant, distracted, even cold, but I don’t mean to be, I only often don’t feel like talking or doing anything.

After that, the questions are all over the place. We haven’t got names picked out. We’ll be happy with either boy or girl, but will definitely want to find out beforehand. Our downstairs bedroom will no longer be just for locking up the cats at parties. What else? I think I’ve covered the basics and if I’ve forgotten anything, feel free to ask.

Lastly, why wait to make this announcement? Well, of course many pregnancies end very early on, and I didn’t want to make announcement just have to make a second announcement, if you get the idea. I hope no one isn’t offended that they weren’t the first to know – most everyone who knew early has kind of stumbled upon the news by accident. (My lack of drinking both alcohol and coffee has given it away – you all know me too well!)

Oh and of course through all this, we’re very excited. Even me, through all my nervousness. =)
Thanks to everyone for your support and advice. I truly appreciate it.

*End Blog.

But readers of this blog may be curious to know how this will affect progress around the house. And let me say one thing, it has certainly brought about a more pressing need for stuff to get done. The one bathroom has become a major major problem when I have to pee really badly first thing in the AM and Mike is the first one in the bathroom. Then of course there's the current guest bedroom, which needs to be converted into baby room. And of course all those uncompleted projects littered about the house...

Money and time is as always, not on our side. Energy is a new concern - we both have none! But as always, we try to press on. And of course, blog on.

And Now the After

As promised, here's the after pic of the finished side of the roof. I just love this darker grey color. Previously the roof had been a light grey green color that didn't compliment the house, in my opinion. (I mean, come on, blue house, green roof - what were they thinking?)

And of course, I don't know if I mentioned that these are the 30yr architect shingles. No? Well, they are. Really these things are such good quality that we'll probably never have to touch them again in our lifetime in this house. (We'll probably move to one of those Erickson retirement home communities in the later years. Those places are just awesome! It's like college for old people.)

Anyway - the white strip of trim you see is a type of plastic trim, super durable, guaranteed to also last for life. We'll never need to touch that either.

Rich, our neighbor who's been helping out, stopped by last night. Timmy the roofer wants to come by after work some night this week and bang out the farmer's porch roof. No problemo. All we have to do is turn on the air compressor and leave out the air hose for him. Mike also has to load more shingles tonight - ie he has to carry up 15 80lb bundles. Heavy stuff, but at least it's almost all done.

And with Timmy banging out the farmer's porch this week, that leaves only one side to strip and roof over the weekend.... which is good because the weather does not look good. Rain Friday and Saturday - big storm stuff. Although I can't wait to stand on the farmer's porch and not get dripped on.

Roofing Along Nicely

Mike is exhausted. The weekend was long and hard and I was basically out of commission the entire time; much to his dismay. But the guys worked so hard and got so much accomplished... there were so many people around, I wasn't even really needed!

Saturday the guys began by stripping the very tip top of the roof and working their way down the kitchen side. TJ was there to set the farmer's porch in order, plus Timmy the roofer, Rich and Dana our neighbors, and of course Mike. By the end of Saturday, all of that side was stripped and the very tip top of the roof was, well, roofed! Plus, they were able to easily load all the scrap into the truck.

I didn't even have to unload the truck at the dump - Rich offered to come over at 6:30am so he and Mike could be the first guys to the dump at 7am on Sunday. And they were! (I slept.)

See the tip top portion all done?

Sunday the guys were able to start right on roofing, since everything had already been stripped. They roofed the mudroom and the rest of slanted portion on that side, then ice 'n watered the entire farmer's porch roof.

Mike & Timmy working on the Mud Room Roof

Ice & Water on the Farmer's Porch Thru Screen

I'll have to take an after pic tonight - it was too dark when the guys finally finished up last night. They were over drinking both nights until after nightfall. I'm so glad we decided to get a new 1/2 keg in the kegerator! The guys really enjoyed hanging out with each other afterwords.

Roofing Relief

With "Roofer" crossed off the immediate needs list, Mike and I were off to Morse Lumber on Saturday, roof specs in hand, for an estimate on materials.

Let me tell you, I was preparing myself for the worst... imagining a number as high as $3,000 and just as impossible. As Mike read off the list and our rep and neighbor Matt typed it all in, my heart was just pounding. Whatever it was - it needed to be done.

Then we went upstairs with Matt where his printer was... and as soon as he passed that piece of paper, I nearly fainted with joy. It was more than doable - it was under budget at just over $1500 for everything. I could have hugged the guy, I was just so psyched.

"Go ahead and deliver it on Monday!" we said.

What a relief. I relaxed for the rest of the weekend, my mind at ease. With the materials ordered, and the roofer and our neighbors available next weekend - we had everything we needed and we're going to have it done (hopefully) by the end of Sunday. I imagine it will go quick with Mike, the roofer, our neighbors Rich and Dana, and our carpenter TJ, who will come on Saturday to button up portions of the porch to prepare for roofing and help out. And me? Well, being afraid of heights and unable to lift heavy loads or successfully operate most power tools, I'll probably be sitting this one out until clean up time.

I'm in charge of clean up. Yay, my fav. Eh, it's not so bad. Whatever helps, you know?

I'm really really looking forward to the completion of the roof. It'll be another major accomplishment that we won't have to worry about again for another 30 or so years. Not to mention the advantages of porch-roof water proofing... Mike and I really enjoy sitting out during the rain storms and haven't been able to yet with all the leaks through the plywood seams.

After this - a little siding and that completes exterior work for this year. Then we're back inside to complete the mud room before the upcoming Halloween party. =)

Estimations and Materials

We've decided to go to Morse Lumber in person early Saturday morning to get roofing pricing. It'll just be easier. Mike already has plans for this Saturday, so we can't start on it this weekend, but hopefully we will be able to next weekend... because by next weekend it will be the beginning of the end of September. Unbelievable isn't it?

Our neighbor estimates that if the guys can really work quickly, they could have the whole thing done in one weekend. But if not, then definitely within two weekends. That's more good news. I'm really looking forward to wrapping this thing up by October.

After that, I have some inside work to be done before the infamous Halloween party... mostly I'd like the mud/dining room finished. Which shouldn't be too tough really. I just have to get my dadoo to help with the tile and then we can install the wood flooring that we already have leftover from upstairs. I'd like to get the closet doors on too, but I don't really expect to be able to do all the trimming out before the party.

The Roof Race is On!

What a wash of a weekend! Saturday morning, Mike and I battened down the hatches for the impending tropical storm Hanna. Then we sat inside and suffered in the 97% humidity watching movies and waiting for the storm.... which turned out to be a whole lot of nothing. But at least we got the scaffolding put away and the plywood downstairs. Not a total loss for our cleaning efforts.

Sunday morning our neighbor's nephew came by to look at and measure the roof. The good news is - he can do it and our neighbor will help out too. He measured it and told us everything we need to get. And the bad news? Well, we've got to order up all those materials. I'm not sure what the cost is going to be, but I'm sure it won't be pretty, whatever it is.

I'm not sure if we're even starting this weekend - considering the forecast already predicts rain all weekend. We'll see - they're always changing their minds mid week.

Hopefully Mike will be able to make a call into Morse Lumber to get a price on and order (if the price is do-able) the materials. The guys estimated it would only take a couple of weekends to get the entire thing done, which is great news. Fall is upon us.

Bad News

We're rooferless. Officially.

Mike went to talk to Chad last night. Turns out he's really busy and really expensive... which was totally unexpected. I think he just gave us a huge price to turn us away. To roof just the high parts, he said if it was all stripped and ready he could do it for $4,000.

That's ridiculous! And depressing. I had to tell Mike to stop talking - I just felt so stressed. Even now as I do some calculations and figuring.... I'm realizing that I don't have much at all left for this job. The end of the summer has just been stripping me bare in terms of cash. And every week it seems that something else comes up that I need to pay big for.... car parts, oil, bills, groceries. It's all adding up way too fast. Sh*t is just too expensive now adays. That's the bottom line.

So now Mike has to go and talk to some other guy.... and I'm wondering if everyone's going to be charging up the ass because of the high price of everything. And it's not even winter yet.... this is going to be a tough one, I can feel it.

Just when I think I'm getting ahead too....

Labor!

Yes yes yes. I know Labor Day is supposed to be about relaxing, spending time with friends and family, and all that yadda yadda. But - if you're a psychotic home improvement junkie like me, you really get your kicks by completing weekend projects!

Let me tell you about my Labor Day. First off, I woke up a little angry because I slept through Discovery Channel's "Collassal Squid" show. Second off, I woke up super early. Like 6:30am kinda early. Not the normal start to a normal relaxing day off - again, I'm not that normal.

So I got up, went for a walk, came back, showered, and got to work. Mike was still asleep of course. It was still only 7:30. But by the time he got up at 9:30, I had already second coated the exterior window trim on the porch side, second coated the french doors, and painted half of the garage top - as far as I could reach from where the scaffolding was placed. Three coats!

Mike was nice enough to help me move the scaffolding right out of bed. And then we both got to painting the other half. He got all the high parts, of course. Before noon, the garage was done!

Before

After

Then we moved on to attaching those upstairs railing balusters that we had left unattached for so long. That was a little tedious and took us right up until lunch time. We took a short lunch break and then moved on to the basement!

If you remember our "Lean Mean Cleaning Machine" post - back on 4th of July weekend when the summer started (OMG has it been an entire summer?!) we cleaned out the garage and put all the home improvement related tools in the basement - creating a huge mess down there.

But it was an organized mess, with piles for plumbing, carpentry, electric, etc. All we had to do was build some additional shelves and put everything away neatly. So, we used a bunch of scrap wood and made the most makeshift shelves you've ever seen. I told Mike they looked like sketchy bunk beds. But they were pretty sturdy. And here's how everything looked when we put it back:


See, previously we had only had that smaller shelf on the left and we added the long part on the right. And all the stuff fits beautifully! I couldn't have asked for more... except perhaps a couple more storage boxes. All in good time.

After that was done, we were able to vacuum and clean up everything else down there, making room for all the extra porch lumber, which had been sitting outside for over a month.

Ah, the lumber section.

And Mike brought up an interesting point. We probably have enough extra wood to frame out a basement bathroom. "We should make a bathroom down here before we even think about doing the upstairs bathroom," he pointed out. A valid point. With only one bathroom - tearing down your bathroom leaves you toilet and showerless. I had half a mind to start him building on it right away...

But there's a roof and siding to consider. So this one may just be as well off left to the list of winter projects. Fall's agenda is just too long to list!

Lastly, as night fell on Labor Day, we installed the railing to the basement stairs... or at least half of it. (It's a split railing, and we don't have the bottom newel yet to attach the bottom part to.)

All in all - a very productive, non-relaxing labor day. And I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.