Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Addition update

Time to complete another item on our addition project.

Peter drove to Home Depot and picked up the cabinets we had ordered. And he managed to get them home all in one piece, no thanks to Home Depot. 

Now, we are big supporters of Home Depot, supporters in the sense that we have paid many an employees salary in the past couple of years. Though I did mention to Peter that we must not be buying enough stuff there any more because we aren't getting the just-checking-in phone calls anymore.  previously we would get a phone call like this. 
                 ring...ring....
Me:  hello?
Person on other end of phone:  Hey Melanie, it's Mike, how are you?
Me:  I'm well Mike. How are things going?
Mike:  Oh, you know, same ol', same ol'.   How are the kiddos?
Me:  They are busy, getting into mischief, the usual.
Mike: yeah, I bet!  They sure are cute though!  I remember when mine were that age and then before you know it, poof!  they are off to college!  Hey, is your hubby there?  I have a question for him.
Me: Sure, hold on a sec

Me:  Peter, Mike from Home Depot is on the phone for you!


See, what I mean?   You know you spend to much time at a store when the employees call you to chat.



Anyway, back to picking up the cabinets from Home Depot.

When Peter got there to pick up the cabinets this very-short-very-pregnant-employee said she would go get the cabinet.  Peter tried to nicely explain that she was not going to be able to bring out this cabinet, that one of the cabinets is 7 feet tall and solid wood.  But she went anyway.  

After waiting about 15 minutes she came back out and said that she had located the cabinets but that "they were too big for her to bring out".  At this point my dear hubby is muttering under his breath something about "no sh*t sherlock"  or something to that effect.  Then the very-short-very-pregnant-employee went in search of some taller-non-pregnant-employees to bring out this cabinet. 

According to my husband there were several strapping young men wearing orange aprons and standing around talking but apparently they really weren't employees, they appeared to be a local group that met to discuss sports. 

Eventually, the cabinet made its way to the front of the store, either with someones help or under its own power, I am not clear on that point. 

Peter told the group of orange-apron-wearing-sports-junkies and the very-short-very-pregnant employee that he would load the cabinets in his truck all by his self. But one of the sports junkies decided to help and grabbed the big cabinet, plopped it off of the cart and started dragging it across the floor. 

At this point of the story the details get rather fuzzy but there was something about my husband yelling at the guy in the orange apron and telling him to "quit dragging his $1300 cabinet across the floor" and something about the guy saying he was just trying to help, and something about my husband saying it isn't helpful when you damage the merchandise, etc., etc.  

It was not a warm fuzzy customer service moment but we have been back to the store since and there does not seem to be any animosity towards my husband.  They probably just chalk it up to "man-that-has-been-working-over-2-years-on-a-6-month-project-syndrome".

The good news is the cabinet arrived at our house with no obvious damage, perhaps racked a wee bit but nothing serious.

Peter had asked a neighbor to help him unload the cabinets and help set the large one in place.  My job was to keep the kiddos from tripping the men or getting crushed by a falling cabinet. It was a little tricky getting the cabinet inside, unwrapped and moved into position, this being complicated by the fact that the cabinet is approximately one half the size of our living room.  The smart, builder men were having trouble getting the cabinet back against the wall.  I suggested a different way and Voila...it worked!   I really should charge for these moments of brilliance. 

Once the cabinet was standing upright our neighbor left us to finish the fun part, getting the cabinet level and attached to the walls.   

For awhile all seemed well, we were making great progress, got the cabinets level, installed securely, got the doors hung straight with the proper amount of reveal showing.  We were with in an hour of being finished, all we had left was to install the trim at the ceiling.

I know you can see this coming......it didn't fit.

The cabinets were too tall, by one centimeter. 

We stared at it for a little while, said some bad words and then started discussing our options.
   a. forget about the trim -
          pros: problem solved    
          cons: it won't match the other cabinets
   b. chisel out the Sheetrock to fit the trim -
          pros: don't have to un-install the cabinets     
          cons: obvious
   c. hire someone to fix our mistake -
          pros: we could drink beer and watch someone else struggle 
          cons: costs money
  d. we could un-install the cabinets, trim off 1 centimeter and reinstall -
          pros: the cabinet would look right  
          cons:  it would be a pain in the a$$

We choose 'd'.

    
And because the construction gods have been frowning on this project since the beginning, it didn't go well.

(the spell checker keeps telling me "un-install" isn't a word. Ha ha spell checker, it is in our house! It is a very important word with regards to this construction project!)



I am going to summarize the next two days, yes, you read that correctly...two days.  Basically it went something like this.

There were screws breaking off as we tried to un-install the cabinets (this resulted in nasty things being said about products made in China and I fear it eventually led to some hateful things being said about all things Asian, including stir-fry - which is unfortunate because we normally love stir-fry) That led to holes having to be patched and then later re-drilled to put new screws in. A measly one centimeter was cut off of the bottom of the cabinet, the cabinets were once again installed, doors hung, aligned, etc. 

Wow, another frustrating part of this great big frustrating project.

We should have had our 3 year old measure for us the first time, probably would have saved us some time.


Yay, they are installed!  From this distance you can't even see the trim that caused us so much angst.  Just take my word for it that it really was necessary.  We will notice it even if no one else ever does.
I am in love with the tall cabinet on the left. For the first time I have a cabinet big enough to use as a pantry, now I don't know what to do with it.




One more thing done, many more to do.

'til next time...

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Chocolate....yum!

Couldn't resist posting these photos. Now this is someone who enjoys her food!










The remarkable thing is she did not get any chocolate on her outfit!

And while she was enjoying her chocolate cupcake her brother was trying to squish some friends.


'til next time...


Sunday, July 24, 2011

Addition update


My hardworking husband was pouring a layer of concrete in what will hopefully one day be a shower basin.

You may have noticed that recently I have been giving more detail about the work we are doing on this addition project.  You may think this is because I think there is someone out there that is actually interested in this. I am actually trying to preserve some information to pass on to our children since they will be probably be the ones finishing this project....long after we are dead and gone.   Or locked up in a nursing home somewhere.  

Not a pleasant thought.

Note to self - give kids extra treats tomorrow, remind them what a great mom I am...


In fairness to us, we have gotten somewhat motivated recently and have made progress.  Maybe this won't be our version of Notre Dame after all.   Maybe.

So, Peter is working on the shower basin. He mistakenly thinks that I am going to keep the kids out of there, away from the wet concrete, and far enough away to not distract him.  But, the way I see it I pretty much have the joy of their company 24/7 so I think it is important for them to get some "daddy time".  

Besides, how many times in life do you have the opportunity to set up your train, watch daddy play in cement and empty an entire box of screws all in your own house?


'til next time...

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Addition update

We got a call that the cabinets are ready.  Peter is planning on picking them up in the next day or two and then we can install them.  The area is painted so it should be ready for the cabinets.  This little cabinet will eventually move elsewhere but can stay there for now.  We are installing one floor to ceiling cabinet and one wall cabinet. There will be a small counter top area as well but we haven't ordered that yet because I haven't made up my mind as to what shape it should be.




'til next time...

Saturday, July 16, 2011

County Fair

Our County Fair takes place each July. It is a pretty small fair but draws some good exhibits and shows.  This year they had a lion and tiger show.  The way it was set up you were only about 12 feet from the wild beasts, so that was pretty neat.  The handlers talked about the animals and put them through their paces, mainly getting up and down off of their stools and also jumping through rings.


The white Bengal tiger was beautiful!

This lion was only two years old and this was his first Fair performance.

He was a little lazy and had to be encouraged.




and the cutest of all.....a tiger cub!

Wythe wanted to ride the train ride.  He was a little nervous about it but felt brave with daddy along.



My future 4-H girl enjoyed the animals, she gets so excited over animals!





Wythe was rather taken with the rabbits,,,perhaps there will be bunnies in our future.

and who doesn't like baby goats???  They are just too cute!





And to make the Fair even better Wythe ran into a couple friends...



We went one evening and watched the rodeo and then went back another night to the Aaron Tippen concert.   I usually try to enter some things in the fair, this year I submitted a couple photos, jam and baked goods.  I won 2nd place for my cookies, 2nd place for my peach preserves and got "thanks for participating" on the photos!   I was glad to get some more 2nd place ribbons, but so far that 1st Place ribbon is eluding me....maybe next year!

'til next time...

Friday, July 15, 2011

My little engineer..

My just-recently-turned-three-years-old-son put together this train track all by himself.  He has been watching his daddy design train tracks...I think there is some Rightmyer in this boy!



'til next time...

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Addition Update

Peter has been working in the bathroom this week. He is working on the shower basin to prepare for the tile installation. Our plan is to have an open shower but that requires a slight slope to the floor where the shower basin area will be. The floor was built lower in that area and then a rubber membrane was installed. He had to weight the membrane down while it adhered. The next step is to start shaping the  basin with concrete.







'til next time...

Monday, July 11, 2011

Trying to "fill in" for daddy...

When daddy's at work someone has big shoes to fill...




'til next time...

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

His favorite thing to do...

My son loves his train track and trains. In fact, the first thing he says when getting up in the morning is "play trains, set up track!"  He will ask me to set up the track for him but only when daddy isn't available, he is not really impressed with mommy's ability to build train tracks.  Sometimes I will be helping him and he will just look at it a say "maybe daddy help when he comes home..."   There are some things daddy just does better..this is one of them!



'til next time...

Addition Update

A little more progress....finally finished the drywall in the kitchen and got the walls painted.  There will be cabinets on this wall, they are on order right now.




'til next time...

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

A little boy's 3rd birthday party

This year we held Wythe's birthday party on the holiday weekend and combined it with a July 4th party. We had a few neighbors and friends over to celebrate.  The weather cooperated by staying dry until we were finished eating, then the skies opened up and drowned all of our decorations!

Per Wythe's request we had a Thomas the Tank Engine theme birthday.  I decided to make him a Thomas cake. I considered making cupcakes and also considered making a cake and putting a Thomas train on top of it but in the end decided to do it the hard way and make a train shaped cake.  After countless attempts and several cakes tossed in the trash I finally had something that would work. When Wythe saw it his little face lit up and he yelled "THOMAS!!!" ....mission accomplished.
























'til next time...

Monday, July 4, 2011

kids 'n boots

This is a scene you can find almost any day at our house. Except for the truck in the background, that is a neighbors truck, we don't own anything that new...  I was actually referring to the two adorable toddlers walking around the yard in their boots. I would think boots would be a little hot in the summer but it is their footwear of choice.



Now, I had always claimed that I wouldn't let my kids outside unless they were dressed...that resolution didn't last long. As this picture will show, here is my daughter sporting her pink boots, pj's and uncombed hair.  I would like to state for the record that this is an unusual look for her....but that would be a lie.  She frequently wears her pj's for a good portion of the day but before you judge me let me try to justify this.  She is a nudist at heart and there are days that I don't want my non-potty trained child to run around naked, so on those days I am more inclined to let her stay in her pj's since she has a difficult time getting them off. That may or may not be a good reason but that's my story and I'm stickin' too it!



'til next time...