It's a Girl!

Our new baby girl, Zaida, finally arrived on Thursday 8/2, and man are we ever happy she's here. For me, it begins a much needed break from our fast paced finish everything rush of the past few months. (And also relief from all the back pain and heartburn.) Finally, I get to just sit and relax and recuperate with a little girl happy in my arms.

It also gives me time to catch up on all the computer activities I had to put aside in the last couple months of pregnancy.

So, here are some much needed house blog updates:

Baby Room
First, lets get the final picture of the old office, now split with room for my desk and all of Zaida's things.

As you can imagine, the desk is on the other side of the room. And I am waiting for the pictures for those frames to arrive in the mail. (Another computer job I was finally able to complete.)

Basement Bathroom
Some time before I gave birth, Mike installed the basement bathroom doors. No, they're not stained yet. No, they're not trimmed yet. But they're hung! And you can close them! Oooo! Stain and trimming are next on the agenda. Next on my agenda in the basement, the closet. I'm so sick of having to travel up and down for towels and toiletries. And I can't wait to store bulk items like diapers, paper towels, and toilet paper in there. All I need is a closet organizer. This one from Rubbermaid is pretty much exactly what we need: http://www.lowes.com/pd_325991-315-FG3R16FTWHT_4294857751__?productId=3239927&Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&facetInfo=

Four deep adjustable shelves. What do you think it costs? Well, at the local Lowes, it costs $150. What what? That's over $35 per shelf. Redonkulous. But I'd really like to get the Rubbermaid, since that's the same one we have in the mudroom and we can use some of the extra shelves and tracks leftover from that project, if need be.

Chimney
Mike was sick of waiting for the inspector. He imagined that he'd already come, but not signed off on the permit because it was inside the house, taped to the window. So he went to the town hall with it, and got it signed in person.

Straight from the town hall, he went and ordered all the chimney block and other needed materials to build. Those were just delivered a few days ago and already Mike has scheduled the chimney dude to start building this coming Monday. We'll see just how fast this thing can go up. The dude told him it would only take a couple days, max. It will be nice to complete this project and fill the hole. (And yes, it has once again caved in from recent heavy rain. Mike's going to need to dig it out again, so you can imagine his excitement.)

Exterior
Outside the house, Mike spent part of his paternity week off cleaning up the yard. Our neighbor recently contracted Lyme disease with several horrible complications all arising from a tick bite. Fearful for the fam, Mike borrowed a brush cutter and took down the massive overgrowth in the back back yard. Then, he cleaned out underbrush along the edges of our property and used the weed whacker to take down the tall grass on our hill (too steep to mow) and around the house.

Next Up?
Don't forget, there's still a tarp over the kitchen roof. This will need to be completed before the winter.

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.

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?

Check Off the Trade Offs!

Productivity was at an all time high this Sunday/Monday as the guys commenced with their October Trade-Offs...

I don't know why I had it in my head that they weren't going to get started until after Halloween. So you can imagine my excitement when I found out. Imagine, all this stuff done - before Halloween. Nothing short of a miracle there, really.


So TJ was over on Sunday and Monday working on the siding. By Sunday's end, he was up to the top of the windows. (Yeah, this pic was taken in the late afternoon - he's almost there!) And by Monday's end he was to the top of the ridge vent.... which he replaced with the new and freshly painted ridge vent. Manwhile - yes! Manwhile! (That was originally a typo, but I'm going to roll with it because this is manly stuff here.)

Manwhile, Mike fixed TJ's truck and had it finished by Sunday's end. Monday Mike was supposed to move on to my truck.... but unfortunately his truck all of a sudden decided to blow a couple of critical parts. (Grrrrrrrrr!) And he had to spend the day taking care of that. (Womanwhile, I have to drive my old and also not-working-right truck for another week until he can get to my new truck hopefully this weekend. Grrrrrrrrrrr2!)

Monday afternoon, our plumber Brian came over to do the third zone... but he didn't. Upon inspection of the baseboard in Mikey's room, he said it was too low to the floor. (We did just put in that new flooring last winter.) And I guess this low placement can effect the effectiveness of the baseboard. (Who knew?)

So they raised it.

At first I was totally t'd off because I was thinking, "Sure, that'll fix the 'too cold' problem, but what about the 'too hot' problem?!" But Brian made a totally obvious point that I'd never thought of before - close the flap! You know, that flap on the baseboard to control the amount of heat coming out. DUR! I'd never even considered that option. So we'll see how it goes. Last night it seemed to work much better and the room was the same temp as the rest of the house - even with the door closed.

And when it comes right down to it, this fix is much more affordable and labor effective than having to go out, buy a buncha new baseboard and another thermostat and all that la-dee-dah. As long as it works - why mess with it?

So with those projects completed... or at least mostly in the case of the siding... we can focus on getting this whole vehicle debacle taken care of. And after that's taken care of.... well, I'm not even going to venture into my winter list at the moment. I've got too much on my mind already.

Get a home insurance quote from Direct Line, voted Britain’s number 1 insurance provider.

October Over - Let the Trade-Offs Begin!

It's the 21st. Of October!! When did that happen? I suppose somewhere between four or five rainy weekends in a row, marathon friend events, and a certain adorable 5 month old, time got away from us.

And I know - excuses excuses. I'm not one to make 'em. And now I'm looking at a 1/2 sided house thinking, it's not going to be done in time for our annual Halloween party. *sigh* And I'm looking inside and thinking, I'm going to be lucky to finish my decorating in time for the party. And it all makes me want to make excuses.... in fact I could probably bake you a half dozen right now. I've got all the ingredients.

STOP THE PRESSES!!

Would you believe, just as I was writing this yesterday, an incredible stroke of luck struck me over the head. We learned our carpenter and very very good friend TJ was in a jam. (If you recall, he built our farmer's porch, leveled our house after the house lift, helped with the hardwood in the baby's room, installed our new front door, and more and more) Anyway, TJ's truck is in bad shape - nearly undriveable in fact. And yesterday he received a repair quote of about a million bucks... not really. But it wasn't cheap. Repair places are all trying to grind out profits now adays you know.

So when I learned, I immediately thought - trade off! And what better trade than the rest of the siding, which Mike didn't really want to do anyway. (Let's face it, the shape of our house plus the windows, plus the height.... the remainder of the siding is a difficult measuring/cutting job.) The guys talked about it last night - we'll pay for the parts and do the labor on the truck (or Mike will... I'll be babysitting, but no big deal) and TJ will finish the siding.

Hallelujah! (I had a hellofa time trying to spell that by the way...how often do you have to spell Hallelujah?!)

I'm so excited I can barely wait! I had just gotten used to the realization that the job wouldn't be done until next Spring... and now it'll be done in time for Winter. Woo to the Hoo!

STOP THE OTHER PRESSES!!!

I nearly forgot about another important trade-off that Mike solidified just this past Sunday!

Ok, so we've noticed that poor little Mikey's room has trouble maintaining temperature. It's either too cold and won't warm up or the door is closed and it gets too warm. Seems like a contradiction, but here's why:

We only have one heating zone downstairs and believe it or not, the longest baseboard is actually in Mikey's room. So, when the door to Mikey's room is closed and the heat kicks on, the room heats right up and it's too toasty, since the smaller baseboards in the rest of the downstairs are trying to maintain the temperature and that big baseboard in Mikey's room is just jammin, but it's closed off from the rest. It's hard to explain, I hope that's clear.

But - and here's the but. If the heat doesn't kick on and the door to Mikey's room is closed, his room will not warm up. I would wager a guess that this is due to the room's placement at the front of the house, which doesn't get very much sun due to the shade of the farmer's porch and fall's shorter days.

Either way, the situation just isn't good. Anyone with a baby will tell you, you shouldn't be covering them with heavy blankets at this age - it just increases the risk of SIDS as they could pull them over their head and start rebreathing too much CO2... that's the theory. And best not to risk it. Plus, if the heat kicks on then the poor kid would get too hot anyway. So it's a no win scenario.

Blah blah blah Jess, get to the point. OK, I hear ya. The point is - we need a zone in there. Problem is, we're severely lacking in time as you all know.

So over the weekend Mike talked to our other good friend and master plumber Brian. (He helped us install our new boiler and our two current zones.) Turns out, Mike has some engines or lawnmower parts or something that Brian has been after.... trade off time once again. They both came to an agreement and soon enough, Brian will come over to take care of the 3rd zone installation for us.

Ahhhh, the great feeling knowing that siding and heat will be AOK and ready for winter. You have no idea what a relief it is.

Speaking of which, with November on the horizon, let's take a moment to reflect on Winter Time Project Goals. (This will be fun because come March/April we'll just see how much we accomplish.... Why do I love lists so much? It's sick. I get that from my dad, I recently learned. My mom noticed a list in my kitchen and asked Mike, "Does Jess make lists?" To which he answered, "Oh yeah! Big time!" To which she replied, "Because Bill makes lists..." Wow we are waaaayy to alike, it's scary.)

Winter Time Project Goals
Winter Time Project Goal Timeframe: November thru March

1. Complete hardwood flooring in the living room!
Project scope: Rip out old flooring, install 3/4 plywood, reinforce underlying floor beams in the basement, repair living room drywall, repaint, install new hardwood, install baseboard trim

2. Complete hallway/stairway!
Project Scope: trim out the new front door and install baseboard and stairway trim, install iron balusters and stair railing

3. Complete mudroom!
Project Scope: purchase and install laundry closet doors, install baseboard and window trim

And I think that may be more than enough to keep us busy throughout the winter season. The good news is - we already have all of the hardwood and some of the plywood needed for the living room! And we already have the railing and the balusters for the stairway! So most of the big purchases have been made - it's now just a matter of time.... which hopefully we'll have this winter, pending completion of fall projects of course...

Get a home insurance quote from Direct Line, voted Britain’s number 1 insurance provider.

Zero Days of Baby

Well - day zero hath arrived. I'm still feeling normal. Still doin my normal thang. My next doctor's appointment is tomorrow, so I suppose I may have a better idea of the plan going forward after that.

I've been telling friends that I'd like to give birth on Cinco de Mayo. That way we could call it Cinco de Mike-O and all celebrate with Coronas. They all think that's just a hoot.

Anyway, in celebration of the due date, here are the final final pics of the room. You'll see I put up the banner from my shower along with some pictures, a mirror, and a couple lamps.


Oh, and pay no mind to the little box of drywall screws next to the crib. I promise we'll move those soon.

Twelve Days of Baby

Yes, we're finally under 20days remaining. Under 15. It's now officially day 12! And I'm proud to report that things are moving along just swimmingly.

On Monday the guys were even more productive then I could have imagined! And I knew it the moment I turned the final corner on the way home from work and saw the beautiful new mailbox at the end of my driveway. A bomb could have exploded behind me and I would have never known it. I was so struck by the difference the mailbox made in the overall look of the property.

And that says a lot considering the house has no siding on the front, the farmer's porch is incomplete, and the landscaping leaves much to be desired. But oh boy, a bold mailbox nearly makes up for all that!

I hadn't even recovered from the shock and awe of the mailbox when I got inside the house and discovered that Mike had taken all the boxes to the dump! I was so amazed I could barely look up the baby safe water temp so Mike and our plumber Brian could set the furnace properly.

Meanwhile, as I'm scouring the internet for that information, Mike continues to ask if I've seen the baby's room yet. I thought to myself, I'm still thinking about the mailbox!

But I finally found the info (at or below 120 degrees) and went to check out the room. Again, I was shocked. The rug hadn't fit under the closet doors, so the guys rotated it, pad and all. They moved the furniture around - mostly for their own convenience, but it looked good.

And the remainder of the baseboard trim was done. The closet doors were installed. The window bottoms were cut. Everything was just awesome.

Just Another Manic Sunday

It was a cold and unloving Saturday. And after Friday night's festivities, I could do nothing but sit on the couch all day wishing I could fall asleep and wake up motivated. But alas, I couldn't.

Easter Sunday... that's another story. We got up early in hopes of going to the dump.... then realized it was Easter and they'd be closed for sure. So we moved on to the rest of our list - starting with the baby's room closet light.

Just a little light right? No problem. Mike had it up in mere minutes. But it didn't work. He checked the wiring on the switch - everything seemed in order, but still the light didn't work. I should actually stop at the HD after work and pick up another one. If it's the light bulb, I'll just switch out the old for the new and return the kit with the bad bulb in it tomorrow. If it's not the light bulb... hey, we'll have a whole other apparatus.

After that failure, we started assembling and installing the closet organizer. Mike worked on the tower while I assembled the drawers. We finished most of it by the time we had to leave for my parents' house for Easter dinner around 12:30.

We got home around 5 and started working again. I finished the drawers and Mike brought in our latest handmedowns from my parents - a rocking chair that was originally my grandmother's mother's and a small dresser that used to be my dresser as a kid.

After that, there was little else we could do. We didn't have the brackets to put up the closet shelf and the closet rods would all need to be cut before they could be installed. (I should pickup those shelf brackets on the way home too now that I think of it.)

Plus, with our carpenter TJ coming over today to help us finish the trim and install the closet doors, the room needed to be in some sort of accessible order. (ie - he'd need easy access to the baseboard, windows, and closet without having to trip over or move baby stuff.) So I neatened up before Mike kicked me out to stain the closet trim boards.

Today I had such a long to-do list for Mike and the guys. In the baby's room there were two remaining peices of baseboard trim - one wouldn't fit because of a gap in the flooring. The other had been measured incorectly. All three windows needed window bottoms cut and the closet doors needed to be installed (not an easy task with an uneven closet.)

Then, Mike had a dr's appointment and a prescription to pickup. Plus he wanted to clean out his truck and do an oil change.

This evening, our plumber will be in to install a mixing valve and check out our boiler.

I can't wait to see how much of it all is finished by the time I get home. There's a possibility they decided to screw it all and ride 4wheelers all day... a small possibility, but I'm not putting these guys past it.

Away from It All

Weekdays have been ridiculously chaotic. My normal routine has just been thrown up into the air and scattered into a million pieces. You'll have to excuse the resulting blog posts.

Weekends have been similarly strange. I still can't get used to this whole mike-works-saturday thing. It just throws off my biological clock.

In this state of disarray, I had more than a little freak out last weekend. All of a sudden I realized that we only had three weekends left (or three Sundays with the working situation) - approximately - and the to-do list seemed just as long as it did a month ago.

So Sunday turned into the day of a million tasks. Mike moved all the hardwood out of the baby's room and into the hallway.

He installed the remainder of the baseboard trim except for two pieces which need to be re-cut. I cleaned up and arranged the furniture into what may be its final configuration. (Still undecided.)

That Side of the Room Where Wood Used to Be

Closet Door Trim

Then a couple of Mike's friends helped him move his toolbox. (Not on my list - but still good to be accomplished.) After they left, Mike stained the closet doors and we went to Home Depot to pickup more stain and the closet organizer. (Would you believe we ended up going with the stupid Home Depot cherry finish despite the fact that it's totally different?! Mike just didn't like the white, and I didn't feel like arguing.)

When we got home, Mike sprayed another coat of stain on the doors and then painted the mailbox post.

And as you can imagine, the day was over at that point.

This upcoming Sunday is Easter and I know there won't be time for much of anything since we're visiting my folks for dinner. (Although we are picking up a rocking chair from them.) But Monday we've got all sorts of fun progress scheduled!

During the day, our carpenter TJ will be over to help Mike complete the window bottom trim and install the closet doors and whatever else needs final final completion. That evening, our plumber Brian will be in to install a mixing valve on our heating system - sad day for me, no more scalding hot showers - and he'll check out the efficiency of our boiler too. (We think it has not been running at its full potential.)

After that, all other to-do's will have to be weeknight projects. We're so busy for the next couple weekends! Dinner with friends, Easter egg coloring, Easter dinner, guy friends over, bday party, friend's baby shower, trip to Boston, eye appointment.... And oh yeah, somewhere either between, before, or after all that we're having a baby.

Half Trimmed

Well, Mike caught the flu last week and was absolutely couch-ridden for days. This put us more then a little behind on finishing the room, but we were able to finally put up all the window trim and install the shades.


The baseboard trim proved to be a little more problematic due to a gap in the flooring along one of the walls, so we stopped there. Plus, all the rest of the hardwood is still stacked against the opposite wall. (Always something in the way.)

At this point, we need to move all that stacked hardwood into the hallway and finish installing the baseboard trim. We still need to stain the closet doors and purchase the organizer and closet light too. All easier said then done, mostly because of weather and Mike's hectic schedule. It seems he needs to visit or help out friends or neighbors every single day.

And did I mention the mailbox isn't up yet? Our poor mailperson!

Spring Edition of Now What

As you may remember, purchasing 500sq feet of hardwood flooring was a 100% gamble. Sure, Lumber Liquidators had their No Payment No Interest for 12mo's deal going on, but who wants another card and another must-pay-this-off-in-a-year monthly payment? I gambled on upcoming tax refunds to pay off the entire thing. (An educated gamble based on the amount of past years refunds.)

This past weekend we prepared our returns (thank you to my in-laws and their edition of Turbo Tax) and were both pleasantly surprised to find that we would be able to pay off the entire hardwood purchase AND THEN SOME. The "and then some" was definitely an unexpected surprise.

Already a flutter of possibilities are swimming around my head... although I know I have to rein myself in. Immediately and without thinking, the first thing out of my mouth was, "now we can do the floors in the living room." Although after thinking on it further, I reminded myself that the siding is still in desperate need of replacement and the porch is still in desperate need of railings and trim.

Not to mention the obvious - the baby's room is not 100% completed yet!

Our biggest problem (that Mike and I share) is our tendency to begin new projects without completing the old ones. We just get waaay too excited about new projects sometimes, and it bites us in the butt. Might I bring up the examples of the upstairs (still awaiting some trim and lighting fixtures), the downstairs stair railing (as of yet unfinished), and of course the porch and siding.

So when the money arrives (March 20 if all goes well), completion of the baby's room will be the A #1 priority. Baseboard trim and everything for the closet. Not much - but it all needs to be done.

Then what? That's the question isn't it. But I'm not even going to ask myself right now.

Making a Case

I'd like to bring the court's attention first to Myth #20, found on the Lumber Liquidators "Flooring 101" Common Flooring Myths article.

20. Wood floors that are sanded and finished at the job-site are more durable than a factory manufactured finished floor.

A pre-finished floor gives you the added benefit of a perfect finish applied under dust-free, ideal conditions at the factory. Ours include from five to eight coats with aluminum oxide suspended in the finish. The only thing harder is diamonds! Factory finishes are much harder than any product site-applied, requiring air-drying.

Next, I ask you to read Myth #34 from the same article.

34. I was told to re-seal my hardwood or bamboo after installation to protect it against pet urine, vomit or spills. Regular cleaning is always recommended however applying another sealer over the original finish will void the warranty. Once between the boards sealers can promote gapping and act as an adhesive preventing normal expansion of the flooring.

Please note this important detail from Myth #34, and I quote, "applying another sealer over the original finish will void the warranty." Might I remind the court that our beautiful pre-finished flooring comes with a 25 year warranty. Furthermore, 25 years is a long ass time.

Also for your consideration we take a look at the rest of the evidence:

Exhibit A: The beautiful floor.
Exhibit B: The price tag for the aforementioned beautiful floor - this portion of which can be estimated at over $1,000.
Exhibit C: The inexperienced Mike, who has never sanded and poly'd a floor before in his life.
Exhibit D: The boxes in the living room.
Exhibit E: The calendar, which has begun its nine week countdown to April 29th.

Ladies and gentlemen, upon review of this new evidence from the Lumber Liquidators website, specifically Myth 34's confirmation of warranty null and void - there is no question as to the next course of action. ie, There will be no next course of action in this case. The floor should be moved in upon as is.

Any supposed benefits are as of now far outweighed by the major disadvantages.

1. Further application of sealer to the current hardwood via inexperienced do-it yourselfers could cause major damage to the expensive and beautiful floor, all while voiding the incredible 25 year warranty the floor came with. At worst, this leaves us with a floor we have to completely refinish. Another waste of time and money, especially since we love the floor's pre-finished beauty. This is why we purchased and spent the extra money on a pre-finished wood product.
2. Sealing the area and moving out for 3-4 days or more because of the smell is impractical when weighed against the disadvantage stated in #1.
3. Time is of the essence. It is not worth risking the worst case scenario of #1. The room must be completed and this lengthly court case alone has held things up long enough.

Though the argument may be made that the Lumber Liquidators Myths article is simply a bunch of marketing designed to make you purchase their products and not whine about the imperfections and inherant shortcomings of real wood flooring, there is no argument that re-sealing will void the 25 year warranty.

In closing, the new floors will NOT be re-sealed. Thank you ladies and gentlemen. I'm sorry to say you're not the jury in this case. Lucky for me I'm the girl. The prego girl! And what I say is going to go. But you can't say I haven't done my research! As you know, I didn't know!

So check your warranty on your pre-finished hardwood! If you don't have a warranty and you don't have a baby on the way and you have some experience at finishing wood floors - I'd probably recommend the poly. Otherwise, forget it.

Can I buy the rug now?!

Decisions and Timelines

February is over. Face it people. And here it is, a week already since the completion of the floor and we're still mulling over the next step.

This poly has become a major decision, mostly because we realized it's going to disrupt our lives more than originally expected. Here's a minor detail I didn't think of in the beginning - I can't be in the house at all with the smell of that stuff.

Once we realized it... and then filled our oil tank with all the available monies, work came to a screeching halt. On top of that, our exterior water spout thing, (you know, that the hose attaches to?) the supposedly freeze-proof water spout thing.... well, it froze. And on Sunday we discovered it gushing water.

So the entire day was spent running to this person's house to grab our plumbing tools, that person's house to grab some fittings and other do-dads to fix it, and finally home to take care of the job and get the water back on.

And then the week started and here we are at Wednesday wondering should we or shouldn't we poly? Scratch that. We know we should. We know now's the only time. But the pain in the butt factor is really making it a hard final sell. We've never applied poly before and this is a large stretch of expensive and beautiful flooring that I would die to see ruined. We need to move out for 3-4 days. It's already March - 9 more weeks to go! The living room is full of boxes of large items just waiting to be assembled.... and more to come after this Saturday. (My shower.)

I said this last week, but if it's going to be done, it needs to be done this upcoming Sunday/Monday. So we'd need to be out Tuesday - Friday. So the decision needs to be made by Saturday. I have a feeling we're going to bite the bullet on this one.

It's Done!

The floor is down!

It looks amazing! Mike was so proud to have accomplished it all yesterday. We talked for a long time about what we needed to do next to really finish the room - besides the poly - we need window and baseboard trim, closet doors, and the closet light. (I'd like to add the closet organizer to that list too.)

And then we couldn't help but talk about the living room... it's so tempting to just start on that floor too while we have an empty room to move furniture into. But we have other things to worry about. Besides that, when we do the living room, we have to do it right. We have to fix the drywall and repaint. Some furniture I'd like not to put back at all or replace. I'd like to get a new TV. It's just too much for right now.

Besides the baby, spring is coming and we still need to complete the farmer's porch and put up the siding. We've got to keep focused instead of doing what we always do.... starting new projects without completing old ones.

Another Wood Weekend

Before Plywood

Plywood

Old square nails from the old old flooring.

Friday progress - just one halfa missing on the left side.

The hallway was in fact 95% finished by the end of Friday. It looked great too and I had high hopes for the next work day - Sunday. Over the week, Mike and his friend and carpenter TJ had struck a deal for Sunday - Mike would fix TJ's truck while TJ worked on the floor for us. Hours for hours. Perfect!

So on Saturday, I spent the better part of the morning cleaning up in the baby's room. Removing all scrap wood and unnecessary tools, vacuuming, etc. You know, general prep.

I had hoped the floor would go on easily and without any major snags. However, as usual, things were not as easy as they seemed. Our hardwood was in fact so hard that the nailer could not penetrate fully with the nails! Mike tried to find a way to set the air pressure to change the nail set depth when he worked on Friday to no avail. He even searched the internet! (I was so proud.) And then he made this comment:

The internet has a lot of crap on it!

To which I had to laugh. Truer words have never been spoken. (He was mainly frustrated after finding several forums where people had complained about the nailer... complained but not offered any solutions, which he thought was pointless. Then again, here I am doing the same thing...)

Anyway, the guys could not find a way to adjust it. (This is on the Stanley Bostich pnuematic 3/4 flooring nailer if any of you are wondering.) So every single nail out of the nailer then had to be countersunk by hand... thus slowing down the process considerably. Even TJ, who is an awesome carpenter by the way, could only get halfway through the job by the end of the day. Mike and I continued laying rows for a little while after he left until we ran out of staples for the rosin paper - thus leaving the room at the half way point.

But everything still looked incredible! And Mike has the day off today, so he'll hopefully be able to finish the second half of the room.

Sunday - hallway completed

Sunday work - halfway through the room

One more half to go.

And now for the frustrating news. Once the floor is done, it's not done. To prevent wear and also water damage from future spills, TJ recommended adding a coat of poly to the entire floor. Unfortunately for all the baby furniture stuck in boxes in my living room, I have to agree that it's probably a good idea. But this means closing off the hallway & baby's room for a full 72-96 hrs - aka 3-4 days - and living in the living room with no access upstairs.

If that wasn't inconvenient enough, I worry too that we're going to mess up this really beautiful, really expensive floor. We've never poly'd a floor before. And it has to stay completely spotless and dust/cat hair free - or else. But on the good side, the poly will fill in the spaces between the wood, thus creating a seal that will prevent any water spills from seeping through the cracks to warp or rot the wood from the inside out.

I'm nervous! And it all could begin as soon as this next upcoming Sunday or Monday if things go well today. That would put us for final completion right at the end of Feb.... OMG, the end of Feb. Yeah - we totally need to stay on track too, with no problemos.

Always easier said then done.

Slappin It Down

It's lunch time here at the 'ol office. And I can't help but wish I was home right now because Mike is putting down hardwood today! I miss being the layout/cut gal... although so much kneeling down and getting up and kneeling down and getting up would probably be exhausting with my basketball belly.

Last night Mike came home with the 3/4 nailer.... rental free of charge. (Have I mentioned how much I love his new job?!) He began working on the measurements right away - this is always the difficult part. And to make matters worse, he had to start in the hallway so he could seamlessly transition into the baby's room with no threshold. But of course the hallway is small and un-square as un-square could be.

Nevertheless, by the time I got home from dance around 8:30, he had the first row nailed down. Theoretically, once the first row is down, you're good to go, although he only managed to do a few more rows before we turned in for the night.

I am hoping upon hopes that at least the hallway will be completed when I get home from work tonight. I know he's not going to have time to get into the baby's room, since he had some other errands to take care of today, but a finished hallway would be huge. It's one step closer!

Then maybe I can hope for him to have the baby's room completed by the end of the day Monday... maybe. This is the exciting part because once the floor is down - rooms look 100% better. And they feel finished.

Wood Weekend

Have you ever been faced with a persistent glaze of dust on everything in your home due to continuous renovations? After methodically cleaning for last week's home inspection, at the end of this weekend I was appalled to find the house looking like I hadn't cleaned in months. But for once I didn't give in to my obsessive compulsive urges - it will only get worse, I told myself, and then I'll be in the same situation next weekend and before you know it, I'll be spending half of all my weekends dusting.

And if you think that's how I want to spend half my weekend... well... you can come dust for me then.

So - another weekend. A really productive one, I might add. On Friday, I left work early for an appointment and decided not to come back. (Yay!) With the extra time, I met up with Mike and we picked up the hardwood and unloaded it into the baby's room. (Rather, Mike unloaded it. Heavy stuff this 3/4 as you can imagine.)

On Saturday, Mike decided that it would be easiest to hardwood the hallway at the same time as the baby's room. So he spent the day tearing up the old wood and reinforcing the beams from underneath. Late that afternoon, he cleaned up, took all the old wood to the dump, and purchased 2 more sheets of plywood. Our neighbor Rich came by too - because after he heard we were doing the hardwood in the hallway, he really wanted to help us finish up the drywall. The hallway really only needed one more skim coat and one more sanding to prepare for paint. And the last coat only took about 10 or 15 minutes for Rich to slap on, so it was no big deal.

Sunday Mike was able to finish installing the new subfloor in record time. Again, Rich came by in the evening to see if the mud was dry enough to sand. Nope. Maybe early this week if he's available.

And now we just wait for the hardwood to finish acclimating - about a week - before we put it down. And no dusting until that's done.

I-Day

I-Day or Inspection Day has arrived. And did I mention there's a few inches of snow on the ground and it only just turned over to freezing rain?

Excellent day for an inspection. Who knows what the roads will be like between 2 and 3 when this dude is supposed to show up, but I haven't received a cancellation call yet.

Mike is home tidying up a few last minute things - installing that basement stair railing, installing an exterior light, and hopefully not creating any big messes after I ran around this morning like a madman to finish the cleaning.

He finished the gutters on Monday, to great relief. We actually had a boatload of extra pieces that I was able to return to the Home Depot yesterday. What an even greater relief! Yesterday he installed the temporary railing on the farmer's porch - which looks great. Too bad I didn't have an opportunity to take down the xmas lights. But no matter. They're not even plugged in.

I'll be glad when 4:00 rolls around and I know the dude has come and gone. Then we're back to the baby's room. (Thank god because it's already Feb as far as I'm concerned.)

Lumber Liquidators called me yesterday - the flooring is in. Mike will be able to pick it up this weekend if not tomorrow/Friday depending on his schedule. He keeps asking me where I want to put all the extra. Hell if I know. (That's my one cheezy joke that I know - what do you get when you cross an elephant and a rhino? 'El-if-I-know.)

Anyway - as I said before, once we pick it up we can go ahead and install it. This time we'll have to rent the traditional flooring nailer (you know, the one you hit with a hammer and all) instead of the little 3/8 stapler. Mike would like to do the hallway at the same time too - and now we wish we hadn't returned those two sheets of 3/4 plywood.

I doubt it can all be done this weekend. Everything's just been so crazy leading up to this stupid inspection. We need a break.

Only 48 Hours

The inspector will be at home Wed between 2 and 3.

Side note - I'm totally going absolutely extreme annoyance theorem right now. I want to run screaming out of here at light speed, in fact. (Imagine someone repeating, sometimes singing, the same word for over an hour in the next room. Yup, that's life sometimes.)

So obviously I need to take a break before I go anymore insane than I already have.

So the inspector - yes! We were preparing for him all weekend. Saturday Mike continued work on the gutters, though didn't get very far. First he needed more connectors. Home Depot trip 1. Then it turns out our downspouts and turn outs were the wrong size. Home Depot trip 2.

Nevermind that the warm temperatures (40 degrees) were melting all the snow off the roof... causing severe discomfort during gutter installation. Mike spent a lot of time with the push broom trying to clear it all off, but still couldn't silicone any of the joints with all the gutter parts so damp.

Needless to say, the end of the day came without much progress. In the evening, Mike had to help out a friend of his while I got to cleaning. I cleaned the basement and the entire downstairs. Sunday, Mike's riding day, I finished the cleaning upstairs and felt pretty satisfied with that.

TJ was over on Sunday too... with good news and bad news. The good news - Mike did a great job on the baby's room subfloor and there's no need to put down an additional 1/2" of ply. When the hardwood arrives - we can just slap that down and be done. Bad news - the remainder of the downstairs should be done in the same fashion. Meaning we rip up the old flooring and install 3/4 ply instead of just installing 1/2" over the old flooring.

Well, that's all well and good save for the additional cost of 3/4 vs 1/2 inch. Big cost difference, actually. Unfortunately, if we don't, the final floor will squeak and shake on the unstable base. Just another reason to hold off on hardwooding the entire downstairs. We have too many baby's room periferals to worry about.

After the floor is finished it'll be window trim, closet doors and trim, closet organizer, closet light, rug, window treatments, and don't forget all that baby stuff.

Anyway - back to inspection news. Today Mike will hopefully have finished up the gutters... and not had any more crazy problems. Also over the weekend, we picked up some 2x4's to create a temporary railing on the porch and a 4x4 to attach the bottom of our basement stair railing to. So that's all got to be done too - if not today then definitely tomorrow.

And that's it. If they're not satisfied with everything - I can at least say confidently that we've done absolutely everything we could.