Wait... What?!

I think I've reached the pregnancy state of total brain capacity overload. Mikey's Birthday party has come and gone... my good friend's Bachelorette Weekend has come and gone... Everything should be hunky dorey, under control.

Yeah, no.

I feel more flustered the ever. More in a rush to complete things that I can't complete. More frustrated by the lack of interest over at Craigslist. (Buy my stuff, people!) And generally more exhausted by the every day. Very unusual for me.

We're having the big yard sale this Sunday - selling a bunch of furniture from the upstairs office and basement, miscellaneous items, chainsaws, an outboard motor, some electronics including a DVD player, video camera, and keyboard... Should be highly exciting, but not a big money maker. Mike is wondering why I'm putting forth such effort for so little return. "Why don't you just take everything to the dump?" he asks. Sorry my stuff isn't worth very much, but it is worth something... I hope. Least I can do is try. If that doesn't work - free on the lawn. If that doesn't work - dump.

Down in the basement, we're stuck. On mother's day we measured and cut as much of the baseboard trim as we could without installing the doors. (Which apparently is going to be an issue because there needs to be drywall on the other, unfinished side of the wall before those can be hung?! WTF) So all the trim is cut... two coats of stain applied... but it needs a third coat. And we're out of spongy brushes. The trim is on hold for spongy brushes. The doors are on hold for drywall. The rest of the trim is on hold for doors. The plumbing is on hold for trim.

I'm so ready to just take a knife and stick it in my brain, repeatedly. The whole situation is so stressful, I think I've just been blocking it from my mind completely.

Meanwhile, Mike in his infinite wisdom has taken steps to start an entirely new project. Great. Something else to take time away from the entirely unfinished old projects. It's another opportunity, much like the kitchen, that cannot be ignored, so I understand. But timing is incredibly bad. The short of it, there's a dude, with a truck, that needs some major work. In trade for a truck-fix, he has offered to build us a new chimney. Whether this is just for the furnace or for a wood stove, I have no clue.

Mike said we couldn't do two flu - floo? No clue how to spell it, but it can't be done. There's not enough room. So what is this for?! I have no idea. I really hope we're not going through all this effort for just a furnace venting chimney.

On Monday he went to the town and applied for the permit. They called him back on it asking for plans, which he's having the dude draw up for him. This thing is for really real. And then he dropped the bomb on me last night that he was going to have to dig for the chimney foundation.... alllllllllll the way to the floor of the house foundation.

And I'm thinking to myself, are you freaking kidding me? We just managed to get some grass growing over there and now you're going to bring in the skid steere and dig a big-ass hole and ruin everything. I expressed my concerns to him in much nicer terms... I know this is another one of those "opportunity jobs." I just got a kitchen for god's sake, I shouldn't be complaining.

It's just a lot of major stress. At least I can take comfort in the fact that our grass is growing nicely. We fertilized twice with nice results - using human poop. Cheap and effective, though slightly smelly. And not our own if that's what you're thinking - from a package. You weirdos. All the trees are doing well - even that Japanese maple I bought and thought I killed last year. It's back with a leafy vengeance this year.

I bought all the porch plants from BJ's again - though I'm not satisfied with this year's like I was with last year's. Had to buy for Mikey's party though. Spruce up the porch.

The coming weeks will be interesting to say the least.

Killer Week

My back is just killing me this afternoon. Just thought I'd share that with you folks. I need to make an effort to relax, stop doing stuff, and go to bed earlier. At least for a few days. It was a rough weekend.

The driveway stuff delivery did not come on Saturday as scheduled. They told Mike over the phone that there would be up to 5" pieces of cement in the reclaimed mix - too big for our taste. He cancelled it all and decided to go and look at our options before making a decision. When he came home Saturday night, he had been to the materials yard and decided that crushed blue stone would be a better way to go.

Lucky for us, they deliver on Sunday and the price wasn't that much more. $170 vs $120 for the concrete stuff. Done and delivered before noon on Sunday. What service!

Sunday afternoon, Mike was out of the house and I took it upon myself to paint the white on the porch steps.

Just tilt your head - this one won't turn in iPhoto for me. Grrrr!

 I may have failed to mention that I also wet wiped/dry wiped the basement tile grout on Saturday. Feeling motivated after finishing that job, I cleaned up the drywall mess in the tub and moved in the vanity and the bottom half of the toilet. (I should not have been lifting either.) Then, I put in the recessed light bulbs and trim on all but one recessed light. (Turns out the shower needs an R20 rather then an R16 bulb.)

I also brought more summer stuff on the porch - the cushion for the chaise and all the small plant holder tables. I checked BJ's, since that's where I got all my awesome porch plants at this time last year. But this year, they don't have anything similar. Just small ones. What a disappointment. Now I'll have to go on the hunt for similar ones at a similar price...

Anyway!

Monday, Mike gave the stairs a second coat and spread the stone. Turns out we just barely got not enough. There's a little portion across from the garage addition that will have to go without stone for a bit. Tuesday, Mike brought home a compactor from work and hit the entire stone driveway.

Meanwhile, I've been busy with preparations for Mikey's bday party saturday. Neither of us have been back in the basement, which is regrettable, but unavoidable at the moment.

Today I'm just exhausted and in total pain. I need to take it easy. It's not even Friday yet.

 

PS - Garage Trim. Very late in posting this pic!

What's That Stuff Now?

It's Wednesday and we haven't been down in the bathroom for a wet/dry wiping of grout yet. It's all my fault this time - I've got us side-tracked for the time being on a time-sensitive bday project. No worries though, it'll hopefully be completed tonight!

Speaking of side-tracked... we're getting a delivery of material for the side driveway on Saturday! As you may not recall, we regraded the entire back yard and side driveway last spring, after terrible winter flooding in the garage. Needless to say, the pea stone that was previously in the side driveway is no more. We could not really salvage it for that use and instead, put it half-way down our backyard hillside for traction control. (It was never intended for driveway stone anyway - it was leftover from the pea stone we put in the basement in prep for the concrete floor way back in the day.)

Long story long, we've got dirt there now. And if you dig in dirt in our yard, you find broken glass, shards of metal, and other debris from trash burying days gone by. Not good for children. Plus, we park a boat and other vehicles in the side driveway. Dirt, specifically sandy sandy dirt, is not good for that either. I wanted some other sort of stone... larger then pea stone... but Mike wanted something that would compact. I caved to him this time, and agreed.

He first wanted a product made of recycled asphalt. But, as it turns out, this is not as readily available as he thought, as they're now using recycled asphalt in road applications. What is available is a product made of recycled concrete. Interesting. Supposedly compacts similarly. And it's cheap cheap cheap. The entire driveway's worth is only $120. (Now I'm feeling like I should have done it last year. Who knew?) So that's a no-brainer.

Do I have any clue what this stuff is going to look and feel like? Nope. Nervous? Sure I am. Once this material is down and compacted, it can be overlaid with stone or even paved, so nothing is set in stone. (So to speak.) I guess I'll find out on Saturday. The delivery will arrive sometime before noon and Mike will spread it with his machine when he gets home from work.

And as for the bathroom - we'll likely start back on that Thursday night and into Sunday, depending on what's going on. The old bathroom is leaking out of control - don't think we've forgotten.