Instagram v. 44

1. Even though he's not 8 he got special permission to make a PineWood Derby car (after I had agreed to make the prizes they threw "since you are making the prizes we have permission to let Bentley race"....who is the winner here?) He took 4th and was pretty proud of Black Awesome.
2. How bad guys eat.
3. Bentley's first piano lesson. Even though I have 0 musical ability I'm thankful I married into some.
4. Just harassing the help at Lowe's. Suggested they spend more time readying blogs and surfing pinterest so they can better serve customers.
5. Our newest 4 eyes.
6. Taking the bathroom down to the studs and starting over. Lincoln asked, "Is that why you let Grandma and Grandpa come? So they can DESTROY our bathroom?"
7. Taking matters into my own hands. And driving mom crazy.
8. Bathroom progress.
9. Bentley's thank you note to Grandma and Grandpa. Also known as a guilt trip.

New Faucet=Backhoe

We've made some more updates to our kitchen, and as a final touch I picked up a new faucet to completely finish it off.
 
First Step: Shut the water off at the sink. Chod climbed under and mumbled the the valves were bent, and something about this being when water starts shooting out and ARS gets called. I told him not to worry about it and that we could just ask Geoff (our neighbor across the street, who happens to be a plumber) to take care of it.

But, Chod was pretty sure he could handle the task and continued on. He managed to get one valve shut off and the next almost shut off, but not all the way. We were going to have to replace the shutoff valves at the sink. So he went down to shut off the main water line. But instead of closing, it just spun around and around.

So now we had no water at the sink, twisted shutoff valves at the sink that needed replaced, and a broken main shutoff valve.

Chod got a hold of Geoff who came over after work to inspect, and the next day returned with most of the parts he'd need to fix it.

After checking things out, he spent a little time knocking on a wall and asking how I felt about it. I told him I wasn't too attached and he replied, "Good, cause we're going to need to cut a new access point so I can knock those suckers loose." A hole was cut and he switched out our valves and pressure reducer valve.

He sent Chod out to turn the water coming into the house back on, and a minute later Lincoln came running downstairs, "GEOFF, GEOFF, there's water shooting up!"

When Chod didn't hear water flowing on the first valve he dropped the key down to the next thinking that might be the right one. But instead it knocked a 40 year old seal loose and luckily, the leak it created was much, much less than what Lincoln had described. It was more like a pin hole in a water balloon sized leak, instead of the geyser I was imagining.

Chod called the city, who, since it was on their side of the meter made sure it was fixed. Which entailed pulling a new line for us.

And that is how a new faucet led to our front yard being dug up.

Backyard Hangout

It's weird to think that a year ago we didn't have a backyard. And it's now unfathomable what I would do with our 2nd if there wasn't a backyard to send him to.

It's too hot during the day to jump on the trampoline (unless there's a sprinkler under it) but about bedtime the boys decide it's time to jump.

And our chickens. Although I pictured tame chickens when I bought them, I've never seen chickens that will take so much abuse and still let a 3 year old pick them up. But I do like that when I tell the boys the chickens are in the garden they hurry out to catch them and lock them back up.

He might not admit it, but I think Chod almost likes the birds as much as the boys do. At least now that they've started laying eggs. He insists it's because the boys have quit begging for a dog, and he'd much rather have chickens than a dog.

Even Gracie Loo-Who likes hanging out in the backyard with the family. I just have to keep her brothers from dropping a chicken on her face. Cause as much as they like them, the chickens still gross me out.

House Update

We've lived in our house for almost 11 months, and our to-do list is still growing. But it is nice to look back at pictures and remember how far we've come.

First up, the master bedroom.

This is the listing photo, and obviously, they used it as the baby's room. For a reason I don't remember right now, we decided to turn it into the master bedroom.

Basically, we gave it a new coat of paint and put a bigger bed in there. Oh and I believe we (mom) changed the baseboards with what used to be in the front room.

And the room that I think has improved the most, but still has the most to go. Downstairs.

This is the listing photo and the room actually looks like it might be a little bit liveable, even if it is straight from That 70s Show. This picture was taken in 2011, despite what you might think.

But the room was so scary. Ugly paneling, nasty blinds, hideous wallpaper, wallpaper that had been partially removed but tore off the sheet rock paper in the process, holes in the ceiling. Really nasty. Even though we couldn't afford to do what we really wanted to, I told Chod we had to unscary-ify the place or it would never get used.

 This little room used to be a sewing room, but it became our toy room. Nice wallpaper huh?

After removing the rest of the wallpaper and the 1 bajillion nails that were all over the place we filled in the paneling and textured over the top. Eventually we want to tear out all the paneling and redo the walls--so this is just a big band-aid.

After it was all textured we primed and then painted and painted and painted. I think this section of the house was the last wood I covered up. Every last bit of wood has now been painted.

The climbing wall in the toy room.

And the backyard:

 In the beginning.

 Removing rocks,

 Watering the grass seed.

 And grass! We also added a shade tree, a peach tree, and 2 apple trees. Oh and a chicken coop.

Yep, I forget how far we've come.

Here a Chick, There a Chick

Chod and I have talked about getting chickens for a while, and city ordinances allow 4 hens. Which we figured is a nice and small number that we could probably handle.

Last Sunday the IFA Chick Days flier came in the paper and Chod and the boys checked it out.

On Thursday I bribed with the boys with a trip to see the chicks if they were well behaved.

And they were.

So we went to "look" and ended up bringing home 5 little fluffy ladies (taking into account that we'd lose at least 1) and all the supplies we needed to go with them. We got 1 Barred Rock, 1 California, 1 Red Sex Link, 1 Golden Sex Link and 1 Astralorp because I knew if these girls were going to be wandering around our backyard I wanted some good looking hens and 1 of each means it will be easier to tell them apart.

The boys were excited for their first real life pets that weren't handed down from Aunt Tameka. So excited that Bentley has started making a list of the next real life pets he wants. Next on the list? A wiener dog.

We got them settled in their new home in the garage and then it hit Chod that he only has 6 weeks to build a chicken coop! Man, baby chicks are as bad as newborns. They sleep all day and peep all night. Our first night together was rough, I could hear them out in the garage peeping away and barely got any sleep.

And we kept them all alive for 4 days, but this morning found our littlest, I think the Barred Rock, dead.

When I told Lincoln she had died he asked, "But didn't I take care of her?"

Sorry little guy, sometimes animals die.

The Wise Man Built His House Upon a Rock

One of the reasons it took us so long to find a house is that I'm married to a soil scientist. So before we started looking at houses he studied soil surveys, took into account the liquefaction zone, and water tables, and finally narrowed it down to a very small percentage of the valley we could live in.

And finally the stars aligned and we moved. And suddenly it seems half of his department lives within blocks of us! It's reassuring to know that after all the time he spent studying and ruling areas out we ended up smack dab in the middle of other soil geeks.

Status on the House

1. We got the grass seed planted 11 days ago. Just in time for it to start raining every single day. Which is a good thing since if we would have waited it would be too wet to plant. It is starting to come up. And that is exciting.

2. Saturday we painted our last room. The pink room is no longer pink.

3. There are 4 closet doors waiting for their last coat of paint and the 3 downstairs doors are almost finished as well. But who's counting?

4. Chod has the baseboards for downstairs cut. They need to be primed and painted. Once they are painted, I'm done. The rollers, brushes, and drop clothes will be packed away and I'm hiding all the paint cans.


5. We have yet to hang anything on the walls....but the time is nearing!


6. Our first house guests arrive this weekend.

Making Progess, Rocking Out

So we don't have much of a backyard, which didn't bother either Chod or I when we bought the house. I figure nothing is way better to work with than a huge mistake that needs to be fixed.

 There's a shed and a little garden area, a peach tree and a lot of weeds and gravel.

After talking to some neighbors we learned that there hasn't been grass back here for 12 years. And a few owners ago had a son that worked for a gravel company and he hauled in a lot of gravel. Then they realized what a mess it was and they sold the house, rumor is because they didn't know how to fix the backyard. So, a neighbor and the previous owner hauled 3-5 dump truck loads(depending on who you are talking to) of gravel out of the back yard! So much for not having someone else's mistake to fix.

I've spent many hours trying to get a vision of what this backyard should become, but haven't come up with anything good yet. Finally, last Sunday I drew up a plan of Phase 1.

Our goal (maybe it was just mine, but Chod is a willing participant) is to get grass planted this fall. No way am I dealing with a muddy winter and spring without grass back there. Phase 1 includes grass, a shade tree and fruit trees, and an expanded garden area. We'll deal with Phase 2 when a good idea comes along.

Monday it was tilled and we've spent the past couple days raking rock. It is hard to believe that they hauled of that many dump truck loads and there is still so much rock.

 

 Chod's starting a new landscape company called "Little Red Wagon Landscaping". Isn't that cute? A wheel barrow maybe more efficient, but we were using what we had.

We got it de-rocked as well as its going to be and smoothed out this morning and I was itching to throw down some grass seed, but Chod talked me into waiting until we had the tree planted.

 I'm pretty excited for this tree and hope it doesn't die this winter or I will be really sad.

 See all those little rocks? They could drive a person crazy.

Our lone tree. The peach tree is no good and it's coming out, and Chod has been trying his hardest to kill the quakies in the front yard and then they'll come down too. So there is a lot of pressure on this one to grow tall.

And tomorrow: grass!

Wood Be Gone

It seems like our to-do list for the house keeps getting longer, and all I see are unfinished projects everywhere. I've been waiting until it was all finished and decorated for the grand reveal, but the other day I saw a file on our desktop I didn't recognize the name of, so I opened it. And then I sat staring at it for a few seconds trying to figure out what it was and why I had it.

Then I realized, "That's my kitchen!" It was the listing photo I had saved. So I guess things have changed around here! We still want to get hardware for the cabinets and are in need of a barstool or 4, but that will come. And I have my eye on some new light fixtures, but again they'll come (hopefully when they go on clearance).

Kind of a glaring difference!

Their front room.

Our front room. There's still a lot of tweaking left to be done here, but we have TV and places to sit and that's all the boys care about. You can see we added a light to this room, thanks to some help from my father-in-law and Chod hanging out in the attic in the middle of August.

The spindles are gone! The halfwall still needs the cap nailed down and some touchup work done and the ceiling needs painted. I'm afraid the one gallon of white paint we found downstairs isn't going to be the right match and we'll end up painting the entire ceiling. Which I do not want to do.

I can't wait to share the before and afters of the basement! These befores were totally liveable, but down there? Well that's another story.

Boodle-nator

I now know why I often feel like I never get anything accomplished. This was not on my to-do list yesterday:

Clean up 8 bottles of paint Lincoln empties in the guest room.

Granted, of all the paints in the house he chose to splatter washable finger paints around the room. And of all the rooms in the house he chose to destroy the pink room---the only room in the house we haven't started on yet. So it could have been much, much worse.

But still.

Work In Progress

I feel like August has escaped me--things have been kind of crazy. August 6th we returned home from Lake Tahoe. August 7th Chod burned his hand. And August 8th we closed on our house. I had a few hours from closing until family arrived to help us with projects in the house. Which means we had a few hours to pick out paint colors and remove the cabinet doors because my dad was bringing his spray gun. My mom, dad and Karisa all came that night and helped us get a huge jump start on the projects on our list. Chod's parents came the next week to help with electrical projects and to move us in. It feels like a whirlwind of a month and we are still living in a state of chaos with unfinished rooms and there are still alot of boxes to be unpacked. Which means I don't have one single "after" picture. It's not pretty, but here's a photo dump of what we've been up to:

A naked kitchen. I've always wanted a white kitchen and Chod said I could paint these. Good-bye oak.

Tameka removed all the vinyl on the walls.

Karisa filled in the grooves of the paneling in the basement. The goal is to bring this room from the 1970's to the 2011's.

We also took down layers of wallpaper and the sheetrock paper with it--arrgh. And removed bout a bajillion nails.

Gave the boys room a freshening up.

Hello white doors.

Prepping the boys room for board and batten.

While this was going on the boys hung out in the office with some toys and the iPad to keep them busy. They were bossed around and told not to touch this wall or that wall and did remarkably well considering.

We decided the spacing for board and batten upstairs.

Chod removed these beautiful spindles.

The boys' room almost finished.

Texturing over the paneling.

The crew installing board and batten above the stairs.

Chod and the nail gun.

Thankfully we only have a few more projects left before upstairs is finished--painting closet doors, nailing down the board on the stairs and painting over the demoed ceiling. And we're making progress downstairs. The family room is primed and ready for paint and the pink room needs to be un-pinked as soon as the family room is finished and we can move the toys out of there.

The plan is to start working on outside projects this week. The goal is to get grass planted this fall, so inside might have to wait until the snow falls before it gets finished.