A Hole, A Yard Sale, and A Place for Everything

News news and more news.

The new chimney project is for the wood stove - good news. It's not going in the same place as the old chimney. The old furnace chimney will eventually have to be replaced. That's our first headline of the week.

Mike has not received the plans from his friend yet... but hopes to by Monday so that he can return to the town hall and get the permit squared away. Nevertheless, he began digging for the footing.

And I have to admit, there's less of a mark on the yard then I had imagined. But here we are, sitting on a hole in the yard for over a week with no plan and no permit. Just gives me something else to worry about, if I didn't have enough on my plate already.

Second headline of the week: Yard Sale Sales Decent! Ok, so it wasn't a mad rush of people and we didn't make a million dollars. I don't think the craigslist ad did anything for us and neither did the signs... last time I put Mike in charge of signage. No clue where he put those things. Most of our folks were neighborhood locals.

But still, we sold a lot of the big stuff, make enough to make it worthwhile, and made some much needed space.

I spent the rest of Sunday and potions of Monday trying to organize stuff. Mostly stuff that had previously been stored on the now-junked bookshelf.

Some of the stuff is scattered around our bedroom and some of it is still in the office. But I made good progress for the amount of time I had and how incredibly tired I was feeling.

While I was cleaning, Mike was down in the bathroom. Yes, I said the bathroom. He had, over the previous couple of days, gotten the foam brushes and completed the final coat of stain on the trim. On Monday, he installed it and began the laborious tasks of getting in the sink and toilet.


The toilet posed a bit of a problem because some of the tile around it was cut too wide and it showed on one side. We discussed it and decided we didn't want to wait to fix it. "It's a bathroom in a basement," I repeated. So when all was said and done and the toilet was in place, there was a little bit of caulking showing on one side. (I still say, No Big Deal.)

After the toilet, Mike installed the faucet fixture to the sink, attached the sink top to the cabinet for good, and put the whole thing in place. Plumbing will have to wait, as the caulking had to dry. 

Onward and upward! Mike hopes to bring back our plumber friend to help him properly plumb the pump to the septic-out and test everything. Me? I hope to finish organizing and find a rug for the now half-office so we can set up all the baby furniture. (Seven more weeks to go!)

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.

Great Event, Great Cause

Hey all! A fellow blogger clued me in to a great event happening this Sunday 8/1 from 9-3 in Chatham!

So well said by my fellow blogger at The Bitch Stopped Cooking, "There will be music, food, and some pretty fabulous things for sale including antiques, handmade items and jewelry, and lots of plants. There is also going to be a raffle for red sox tickets, patriots tickets, and some other great stuff."

Make sure to check it out!

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