Making Half an Effort... Maybe

Friday the 27^th – day four past my due date. I’m tired. Lethargic. Bored. Most everything has been done… I’m procrastinating a whole lot of stuff that doesn’t matter too much. Like D batteries. I’m not sure if I have any. And I don’t feel like checking.

The office/nursery is all set up except for a random extra changing table and the bassinet, which are both just hanging out in the room for now. Both will eventually go into our bedroom – again, I just don’t feel like making the rearranging effort until I need to. Mike will have some time off to help me when this baby finally does come anyway.

And have I taken a picture to show you all? No.

Meanwhile, other things are just trudging along slowly. Down in the bathroom we put up one hook for towels, a toilet paper holder, and all the lightbulbs for the vanity and fan fixtures. I bought a dimmer switch and a wall plate to go with it yesterday on my way home. That will probably go up in the coming days along with the closet light and light switch. I’m also looking forward to doors… nothing new in that department yet.

Outside, the chimney foundation is still as it was. We’re still waiting for the town to come and inspect. In the past week or two, heavy thunderstorms have caved in the hole more then once. Mike dug it out, then dug it out again, then dug it out and made a barrier of wood scraps to keep it from washing out. So far, it seems to be holding, but we hope for the inspection soon.

No sign of our carpenter in regards to work on the porch. But we were all out of the house on a family outting last Sunday anyway. Doesn’t much matter since we haven’t ordered or even listed out the next round of materials needed.

And that’s just about all the news that’s fit to print. Mike’s had a ton of misc stuff of his own to take care of – a jetski fix-to-sell project, a 4wheeler fix for a friend, a lawn tractor fix… There’s no shortage of work to be done out in the garage.

Me, I’ll just keep on waiting.

Lots of Work For A Little Concrete Square

The dudes came on Monday and formed, then poured the chimney footing, attaching to the house's foundation with rebar. Sounds easy enough, but involved a lot of digging, cutting, mixing, and pouring. The result:

Yup, there it is. That tiny little square with the inscription, "The Boys." Their calling card. And while the dudes were in the hole, Mike fixed the back brakes in the dude's truck. Both parties were more then satisfied with the work accomplished.

Today, Mike called the town inspector, who said he'd be out today to review the work. Undoubtedly, we'll get some paperwork in the mail with the result of that first inspection. Beyond that, we have some more materials to purchase and a second day of work to schedule. The dude estimates he can build the chimney all the way to the top in just a couple days if not one. All good.

Tonight, Mike also installed the vanity light, switch, and multi-function switch in the basement bathroom. At long last, maybe we can get a mirror above the sink. (At long last... listen to me. This thing hasn't even been functional a week. My concept of time is warped.)

Ta-da! Of course, we only had one light bulb in stock. This is probably the only light fixture in the house that takes regular bulbs and not those little tiny expensive whatever they are's. The fan fixture is another story. Mike claims it did not come with light bulbs. I claim that nearly every fixture I've ever purchased from Home Depot came with light fixtures. It must have and we just either lost them or threw them out with the box. Frustrating now, since it takes SUPER WEIRD bulbs.

My next task is to go to the Home Depot, find the fixture, notate which light bulbs we need, and purchase. Perhaps tomorrow.

Nesting Together

Nesting: A pregnant woman's natural urge to clean, prepare, and accomplish mass quantities of to-do's before the arrival of a new baby. You might ask, "so how is that any different then your normal self?"

In my first pregnancy I was obsessed with removing the mildew smell from an old steamer truck that we used to keep all our Halloween costumes in. (Which were also smelly.) I succeeded in de-stinking the costumes but had little luck on the box.... which I ended up just throwing away after giving birth despite all the crazy efforts I'd gone through.

This time around, we had the yard sale. I've been thinking to myself that it would be useful to schedule a pregnancy every 5 years or so just so I could find the motivation to re-organize and clean out the entire house. (Not going to happen by the way.)

The strange thing is, now with only a couple weeks left to go, everyone around me seems to want to help "build the nest" so to speak. Take the past week as an example:

Monday Mike had our plumber over and the two of them finished the pump plumbing downstairs.

Tuesday through Thursday nights after work, Mike completed final plumbing on the downstairs sink and shower, hooked up the recessed lights and fan fixture, vacuumed the entire downstairs, and began work on drywall outside of the bathroom so that the doors will be able to be hung.

Thursday night, we began using the bathroom full time. 7/12/12. Mikey was the first one to take a bath in "the big tubby." And with everything functional, Mike and I were soon to follow. We brought down what we needed from the old bathroom - all shower soaps/shampoos and the shower curtain. We also brought down toothbrushes and toothpaste and a couple other things. I had to leave my contacts and the hair brushes upstairs, since we have no mirror downstairs as of yet. (Can't put up a mirror until we see where the light fixture over the sink is going to sit exactly.) And with no towel racks and no hooks, it's a little difficult to bring down all the towels and bathrobes.

So we're living in the middle of a Tale of Two Bathrooms. Downstairs shower, upstairs miscellaneous.

And you can blame my nesting for a couple of giant bathroom related shopping trips on Friday and Saturday if you'd like. I picked up a new shower curtain rod, curtain holders, curtain, liner, microfiber absorbent bath mat, soap dispenser, toothbrush holder, over-the-door hooks, toilet paper holder, and one single hook. Of course, I was unhappy with the expense of nice bathroom accessories. The brushed nickle shower curtain rod alone was $40. The bath mat was $25... I had wanted the larger one, but it was $60. Ouch. Everything else was between $10 and $20 each. (The only thing from stopping me from buying the rest - towel rods, closet organizer, shelving etc etc.)

Mike also admitted to me he cleaned out the shop at work of his own accord. I didn't tell him there was such a thing as male nesting, but there is.

Now to the weird part... out of the blue, Mike scheduled the dude to come set the chimney foundation form - tomorrow. And he's coming. Wow.

If you think that's a coincidence, our neighbor dropped by this morning and said our carpenter wanted to come by and measure our porch to build the final front steps in the coming weekends. And he'll give us an estimate on a rubber roof for the kitchen, which we hope to accomplish in early September while the weather is still warm, but not scorching.

And he came by! I somehow missed the doorbell ringing, but he left a note and said he'd be back in a couple of weeks to do the job. Mike will give him a call to get the materials list.

It's enough to make your head spin!

Thank god I'm keeping busy. Saturday, after that big shopping trip, I came home and did this:

A little wall decor in the baby's area. (Since we share the room.) I also put up some other decorative shelves that had been sitting around gathering dust and completed a photo collage for the hallway with some of our travel pictures. Then I brought up a toy sized box from downstairs and loaded it with all the baby toys previously stored in Mikey's closet. And that's all just the tip of the iceberg of progress I made yesterday.

Plans for this week - well, I guess there's a foundation being set tomorrow. Mike still needs to install the vanity light in the new bathroom along with some other small bits that we need to hit the home depot for. (Outlets, covers, a multi-function switch for the fan, light bulbs...) Then there's the completion of that drywall so we can hang both doors, nevermind the complete and utter destruction of the upstairs bathroom. That's going on video. And I'm going to be a part of it no matter what. Just give me a respirator and a hammer. It's going to be smashing!

Truckin Stuff

Chimney Dude dropped off his truck last Saturday night. Mike fixed it on Sunday. Chimney Dude picked it up on Sunday night.

One half of the trade, completed.

The dude examined our hole, which had washed out some in the recent rains, and gave Mike a couple notes such as, "go a little deeper" and "you may lose that bathroom window." Tuesday night, Mike re-dug the washed out portion. So.... we're ready.

In the next step, the dude is going to set the forms for the chimney's foundation. That has to be inspected before we can actually pour the foundation. Then, it's up, up, and away! Seems fairly simple to me, but as always, we'll see how it goes. We have no clue when the dude will be back out to set the forms.

In the mean time, I've been poking and poking Mike to schedule our plumber for the last phase of bath-madness. (The pump to the septic part.) Our old bathroom is doing worse by the minute, leaking water everywhere. I fear that some day soon the floor is just going to give way and I'm going to end up in the basement with a real mess on my hands. But I doubt he's remembered today either... his memory is worse then mine these days.

And me? I'll be pooped until I'm popped, I guess. I have no energy, extreme pain, and plenty on my mind. I could probably sleep half the day away and spend the second half on the couch eating tacos. Fish tacos. With avocado. Yes, California style. But instead I spend my little bit of free time trying to arrange and clean the upstairs once-office now turning-nursery. The crib's up, the swing and bassinet are assembled, and the dresser changing table is purchased and in place. Nothing is quite put away yet... but I did do my first load of chemical-free dye-free fragrance-free laundry!

Yay?