Ruffin It

Remember when I mentioned that our good roofing pal Timmy came by and measured/made a materials list for the garage addition a couple weekends ago?

Well, last Saturday night, Mike went to the HD and purchased the first load of said materials (No trim, just the basics.) And when he got home he said to me, "That's a LOT of wood, I think it's too much. You're going to sh*t when you see how much wood that is."

Jokingly, I replied, "I'll probably sh*t when I see the bill." Unfortunately he turned to me seriously and said, "You probably will."

But we both thought at the time, "eh, some of it will go back."

Nope.

The guys worked on Sunday - Mike, Timmy, TJ - even our friend Shawn was over. (Meanwhile I was hanging out with 3 other moms, 3 other babies, a 6 year old, a 7 year old, an 8 year old, and of course my own little Mikey. Total full house! But that's another story.)

And yes, the guys used all 24 16' 2x8's in construction of the roof.

They didn't have time to start plywooding, but as you can see, everything's ready to go.

Of course I have yet to look at the bill for it all, but considering how much I can't wait to get the yard cleaned up, there's no doubt it'll be well worth it.

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STREZZED OUT

Hard to believe that just a year ago yesterday I was 39 weeks prego and Mike and I were on our big last hoorahh trip to Boston. That little weekend escapade was so incredible and relaxing. Wish I could have done it again this year... unfortunately no time to take a day off. Not so much because I have a teething baby, although that doesn't help things any, but because work has been just overwhelming.

Plus I have so much personal junk that I just haven't been able to do because I need a day off from work to do it all and I haven't been able to take a day. And it's not that my boss said "NO" because he said "Sure, whenever you need to go." But I just haven't been able to. Too busy. I could take a day... but then that would mess me up on all these tight deadlines, presentations, shoots, and other madness I'm trying to juggle. It's getting so frustrating.

And in the midst of all this, there's a million events coming up I need to plan for. Bday parties, bachellorette parties, graduation parties, bridal showers, bike week, the annual dance recital we shoot for work.... So there's presents to buy, invites to send, RSVPing to do, babies to arrange.... I just can't seem to get a leg up on the pile.

So why am I taking the time to complain about it when in the time it takes me to write this blog, I could have made 5 phone calls, shopped online, printed some invites, and coordinated my calendar?! I dunno. Don't ask me stoopid questions right now. I'm too twazzed out.

As you can imagine, with a mental load like this, I've been less then proactive in the hacienda department. But, with this past weekend as rainy as it was, who really cares, right? Good time just to hang in and try to get a grip on yourself.

But our good friend Timmy who did the roof on our house stopped in to take some measurements out at the new garage addition and write up a materials list. He's going to give Mike a hand in building and roofing the roof, hopefully this Sunday if the weather holds out.

And as for the porch, I still don't know, but I'm beginning to think not, which is pretty disheartening. I think if I'd known that things were going to be this crazy now, I would have definitely shelled out the cash to finish the thing the same year we started.

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One Addition Please

Behold! Garage addition sans roof!

Yes - there it is. One Sunday = one addition please. And Mike's really pleased. In just a day, he purchased all the materials and built this. The opening you see is for our current frontal garage door, which will soon be moved to the rear upon purchase and installation of new frontal garage doors.

Also yet to come - or I should say, yet to come down, the giant CB antenna. (Because it would just be so backwards to build that in there, wouldn't it?) And all that scaffolding stuff should really go back where it came from too. Plus, a roof would be nice. Luckily, we probably have enough roofing leftover from the rest of the roofing job to complete a nice little roof on the addition.

And as for me, I'm dying to get an answer on the porch completion front. That way I can figure out whether to be excited or not.

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Nothin Like a Rust Basket for Easter

Welcome to Easter Sunday!

Mike brought me home a lovely rust basket yesterday... the 1/2 a trans am I mentioned earlier in the week.


And despite my reservations about messing up the yard just two weeks after we finished cleaning it, I'm pretty happy with this thing. I mean, Mike was out there for less then an hour when "Vrooommmmm" the engine fired right up - no problem, ran perfect, leaked nothing. All he's got to do (all - yeah, that's a loaded word) is pull the engine and anything else worth salvaging - then junk the rest.

Today? I doubt it.

Today's more about his garage - or, I should say, the back of the garage where we poured a cement slab nearly 3 years ago. At that time it made a great dance floor for our backyard wedding. But its real purpose was yet to come - garage addition.


Well, thanks to the sale of one of our welders, Mike is now able to fulfill his add-on dreams and build the durn thing. (And it's a 'thank you' from me for all his hard work to get the house ready for that appraisal too.)

So today, his mason friend Tom is coming over to raise that foundation a bit with cement blocks, thus avoiding wood to ground contact. (Because that's just never good.)

Meanwhile, our neighbor Dana will be burning our combined brush from those trees Mike took down near the line of our two properties. We gave most of the logs to Dana for his wood stove, so he was more than happy to offer to tend the burn for us.

Not quite your traditional Easter celebration, but very much us.

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