Like sands through the hourglass...

So are the days of my life. They're slipping past. Honestly, I can vividly remember the last time I posted, and it doesn't feel like it was 2 weeks ago. What the hell?

Rest assured that virtually no progress has been made on the house in those two weeks, with the exception of some woodwork on the deck--pillars, railing, etc. I am very much enjoying the deck, but I am starting to resent the amount of Eric's time that it is taking. After all, I don't live on the deck--I live in a master suite without a toilet or a shower. And dammit, it's supposed to be sunny and nice all week, so no forced inside days either. Phooey.

Anyway, despite the lack of progress, we are gearing up for some big projects, the largest being new carpet for all of the bedrooms and the upstairs attic. I can't wait. It will be nice to lay down on the carpet with the puppies and not feel repulsed. Yogi is a shedding fool, and is loosing hair in clumps, while the Pix just lays down a fine layer of black hair wherever she goes. The combination is lethal. We picked up an entire vaccum cleaner canister just from an 8x10 rug the other day. And we'd just swept the day before. Disgusting.

Pix and I just got back from a lovely weekend in Northern Michigan. It was a bit chilly, so there was no beach or swimming--just as well, as every crazy person in Michigan descended upon Higgins Lake with their firecrackers, flag t-shirts, and mullets. I don't want to sound like a snob, but Dad and I went to the grocery store, and we just looked at each other with wide eyes. Got to the car, and we said, "Who are these people and what are they doing in my town?" It's like an up-north version of the 500 festival. Yikes.

Meanwhile, work is nuts, but that is a good thing. A state budget passed at the last minute means no mandatory unpaid vacation for Haley. Wahoo! I'm all about the vacation, but not so much with the unpaid part. I've got property taxes to pay...

Hot Hot Hot!

The name of one of my favorite Cure songs, and the state of the state right now. Darn, it's boiling out there. Thankfully, we have procured a window unit AC for the master bedroom... Here's a story for you.

So, when it started getting cold and we finally turned the heat on, we started wondering why in the world it didn't get warm in the master bedroom. We're cool with this--we like it cold when we sleep. However, given that there's a vent in the master, we had, reasonably I thought, expected that heat and cool would flow out of it. Well, we were wrong. I discovered that someone had gone to the trouble of cutting a hole in the floor of the master bedroom, and indeed, it is just a hole. It leads into nothingness. So, anyway, we brought a guy in to see what it would cost to fix it, and it's not a terrible price, relatively speaking of course, but we just haven't gotten around to it with all of the other stuff we've got going on around here. So, yes. The window unit is WONDERFUL. The puppies are enjoying it, as well. Yogi was a little suspicious at first. And by suspicious, I mean when we turned it on, he high-tailed it out of the room and wouldn't come back for a while. But he's come around. They enjoy laying on their backs in front of the breeze, letting it cool their tummies and nether regions. Smart doggies!

Meanwhile, Eric is making major progress on the deck and backyard. Our planters are fully in and the plants are in the ground. Looks great. Our neighbor had a huge stack of old bricks he was looking to unload. These are great old bricks--the huge, glazed kind with the raised letters. So we used those for lining the planting areas. He's also doing something with the posts. I can't really describe it because I don't "see" it yet, but I'm sure it'll look good. All I know is that there's more wood being used on that deck than in the rest of the house combined.

Next project up is the master bathroom. We've already got the tile for the floor and shower walls, so we just need to get the accent tiles. We've picked it out already--glass mosaic with gray, orange, and green. I think it'll look great. I'm hoping we get this finished sometime within the next month or so.

My tomato plant is growing like nuts. It's HUGE! It's already got blossoms, even though the plant description said it wouldn't produce fruit for 60 days. Apparently, the plant description people underestimated the power of Indiana summer.

Pictures soon... Peace.

Not an ideal situation...

Since Monday afternoon, I have been in Denver for a conference. Ann picked me up from the airport and we had a delightful dinner with her husband, Jon, and their darling toddler, Narelle. It was just wonderful, because I last met Narelle when she was but a fetus. Between Monday evening and right now, I have been outside once, and that was just to get on the shuttle to the airport. The conference was great, but 9-10 hours a day of substance, plus receptions, well, it gets exhausting. 

Anyway, I made it to the airport with time to spare in order to make my 1:30 scheduled flight to Chicago, which I'd arranged in order to make a Commission meeting this evening in Gary, and get a good night's sleep before tomorrow's big Commission meeting. Well, as of right now, my plane is scheduled to take off not at 1:30, but at 7:15, getting me into Chicago at roughly 11:30. Then I have to rent a car and drive to Gary, maybe sleep for 6 hours, and then drive back to Indy tomorrow afternoon. 

I know that I can make it. I have to make it--there are no other options for getting the hell out of here. But it's going to suck. 

We're still alive...

Just barely. It's been nothing short of ridiculous around here. Busy! But full of progress. We are no longer jumping three feet down from the back door. Our hanging baskets no longer depress us and our neighbors. We actually have plants in the ground. All good things. 

So, our weekend began on Friday afternoon, when my parents arrived from Michigan. Their trip down was very adventurous. They hit a deer going about 50 on the highway. Thankfully dad was able to slow down, and the deer bounced off the car instead of into the car. The irony is that they had just had the front grill of the car replaced last week. These things happen, I suppose. 

We began work on the deck on Saturday morning. Last week, Eric had successfully sunk the posts and started on the main floor support for the deck. I am convinced that this is the most solidly constructed feature of our house. A tornado comes through and destroy the house? The deck will remain. The puppies helped supervise the work. Pixie is quite the taskmaster.

Dad and Eric doing something with the floor joyce. 

This was one of approximately 3 minutes of the day where Eric was in a good mood. 

Sunday, they started with the actual floor. Made tremendous progress.

Dad was still able to fit in some quality time with his girl, Madison. That dog is in love with my dad. And he with her. They are quite a pair. 

While Dad and Eric were busy with the deck, Mom and I occupied ourselves by prettying things. First order of business was replacing the pansies in the hanging baskets which all simultaneously decided to die. I don't know what happened. Anyway, we found some beautiful begonias and some little creeping white flowers. I'm pleased. They look so nice against the house. Now, if only I could get Eric to get the drywall off the front porch...

About 5 weeks ago, I planted a little rose bush--one of those that you buy for $6 at Home Depot that's basically just a root bulb and some stems. Well, one of the bushes has done nothing, but the other has just thrived. We got our first roses early this week! Now, I would like to uproot the entire front yard and just make a wild rose garden. Eric says no. 

For the backyard, we got some rhododendron bushes, Sweet William, and some peonies, donated to the effort by our neighbors who don't get enough sun for them to grow. So far, the peonies are struggling a bit--they're traumatized by the move--but the others are doing great, and we even have some blooms on the Sweet William. 

Finally, we got a tomato plant starter. Mom will appreciate this. When we planted this on Sunday afternoon, it went halfway up to the first ring of the tomato cage. In 5 days, it has doubled in size. I expect many delicious tomatoes this summer. You can all come over for a nice Caprese salad in August. 

Still no deck...

It's definitely not an ideal situation. Our back door is located about three feet from the ground, and without a deck, that is a long trip down for the puppies, who sometimes forget that there's no deck. 

Eric and cousin Matt spent a tremendous amount of time this weekend preparing for the deck. This included doing something with string that took a really long time. I asked Eric what he was doing with the string, and he started to explain to me, but I lost interest. 

Here are Eric and Matt digging post holes. 

And here is our future deck, stacked in the backyard. Funny--it felt like more when we moved it into the yard, piece by piece, on an 85 degree night... 

In other news, we're enjoying a nice day off. I will likely try to get some work done today, particularly if it's raining, but I generally enjoy a day where, even if I do work, I don't HAVE to work. We're going up to the northside in a while to look at a couple antique chairs that we may purchase. That will be fun. 

So far this spring, I've been bitten by no fewer than 15 mosquitos (or multiple bites by the same mosquito). This is perplexing to me, as Eric has no bites and he was outside all weekend. I also have a mystery rash on my left elbow, which is making me crazy. I'm up at 7:00 on my day off. I'm falling apart. 

Remember the fence I keep going on about? Here is visual evidence of its disgustingness. This is just one example. Another would include the far section of fence, which is apparently not held into the ground with anything and is leaning quite significantly. Eric is hesitant to take down the fence without a replacement. I say, I could TOUCH that fence and it would dissolve at my fingertips. This thing is not providing us with any additional security. 

So, we're going to replace it. The retaining wall of our dreams is just not going to happen this year (or next), so we'll put up another fence, and and arbor over the steps up to the house. I think that will look nice. Hell, it will have to look nicer than this. 

Reflections...

Tomorrow is our one-year anniversary of owning our house. This blows my mind. We didn't move in till July, but effectively, as of one year ago, our thoughts, marriage, and basically our entire lives became consumed with the house and all of its aspects--being broke all the time, living in squalor, worrying about when we're going to have a kitchen, finally getting over the fact that our dishwasher is in a box in the dining room... It's all good. We're pretty happy here. 

To put things in perspective, here's what we've done in the last 12 months:

• Removed approximately 250 linear feet of trim (which is still on the floor)
  
• Removed nails from 250 linear feet of trim
  
• Ripped plaster lathe and insulation from two rooms 
  
• Insulated and drywalled two rooms
  
• Scrubbed drywall off of floors in kitchen, living room, dining room, foyer and upstairs hallway after contractors didn't put down a dropcloth
• Fixed 9 splits in copper piping
  
• Got a new water heater
• Removed tub, vanity and shower stall from guest and master bathrooms
• Build the frame for new shower stalls in guest and master bathrooms
• Painted the kitchen, dining room, living room, foyer (twice), hallway with 25 foot ceilings, master bath (twice), master bedroom (twice), guest bedroom, guest bathroom, third bedroom (twice), bookshelves, fence (now decrepit)
• Tiled, trimmed guest bathroom, and made a new shower
• Removed carpet and ceiling from the attic
• Replaced the ceiling with awesome beadboard
• Insulated the entire attic space
• Built a fence around the backyard
• Built a stoop, soon to be replaced by a real deck
• Replaced the roof
• Replaced all the rotten siding around the house
• Painted the house

I'm forgetting stuff, too. This makes me feel very productive and good about myself. I should do this more often.

 

Bathroom Tile and Garage Sales

So sleepy... We have been busy little bees today. At least I feel like I've been busy. But it evens out--I work longer, but take more breaks, while Eric works a shorter time, but takes no breaks and is actually productive, whereas I just move stuff around and use a lot of furniture polish. It seems to work out okay for us. 

Today, I woke up early, before the puppies even. It wasn't necessarily intentional, but was a bonus because our neighborhood had a garage sale today. Generally, I don't "do" garage sales. I think it stems from a garage sale I was in on when I lived in Santa Fe, which wasn't fun. Anyway, I decided to head back out today to see what's up. I stopped first at our lovely neighbors Tom and Ed's house. I've been in their house. It is amazing and they have perfect taste. I found a lovely blue wedgewood vase and a candy dish in the same pattern. Then I headed down the street to one of the larger houses in our neighborhood. Seriously, this place is at least 6,000 square feet. I've not been inside it, but it's on the puppies' walk route, so I gaze at it daily. There, I found a nice inside tree and an old sewing machine that I'm going to use as a table up in the hallway. It has seen better days. I just cleaned it all up.  Then up the street, where I hit the mother load. I found a rocking chair, a low extra chair for the living room, and a tallboy for the bottom of the stairs. WHOO! I just have to find a lamp for that, and we'll be good to go. 

I was done by about 9:00, so came back and had some coffee, and then Eric and I headed up to the northside to look at some tile for the master bathroom. We've been keeping our eyes on Craigslist, because you can really find some great deals on there. I was about 2 hours late for a bid on 300 square feet of Daltile glass mosaic for $100. Could've kicked myself... Anyway, we saw an ad for a sale at the warehouse where we stop occasionally to look around, and guess what we found!

I don't think you can see it very well in this picture, but this is a polished porcelain--kind of shiny. I've been pricing this stuff for ages, and I think we got a pretty good deal. $2.29 a square foot? Had been at least $7. I'm pleased. Now we just have to rip out the tile and vanity that are in the master bath now. Eric is also going to bump the master closet into the bathroom space. I am thinking that this tile will likely be on our front porch through the end of summer, enhancing our trash-ness. However, we can't just bring it all inside and put it in the bathroom, because I seriously think it would crash through the floor. We've got 26 boxes and each box weighs at least 30 pounds... I'd rather not tempt fate. 

Eric is still working on the ceiling in the attic. It's coming along, but he has a lot of trimming to do, and some drywall patching to work on, too. He wants to finish it before it gets too hot, as even though the venting we've done will help, on a hot day it's like Hades up there. 

Meanwhile, the puppies are being good and staying out of the way. Pixie sits like this on the couch all the time, making sure she doesn't miss anything, while Yogi just seeks comfort.