Addition update -

I am pretty sure I don't want to be a plumber when I grow up.

This past week my husband has been trying to finish the plumbing in the new bathroom and he has made great progress!

We ended up having a plumber come over for about an hour to finish sweating a couple pipes. Peter was having trouble with those particular ones and finally decided to call in the pros but other than that he has done all of the work himself.

I nearly had a nervous breakdown over where to put the faucet for the tub. There were way too many options and not having the tub installed made it difficult to visualize where the faucet and handles should go. At one point I started losing all interest and wanted to just close my eyes and point to a spot, but I knew if I didn't get it right I would be cursing at myself every time I take a bath. So, I finally made a decision, won't know if it is the best decision till I get to use the tub but I have a good feeling about it. The other part about installing this faucet is the fact that the faucets for this bathroom cost about the same as having a child, kind of makes you feel like you should get it right.

Peter has to hook up the tub drain and then the plumbing will be roughed in. We are hoping to have that done this weekend and then get our plumbing inspection next week. The plumbing is the only thing that has not been signed off on by the county. Once the plumbing is approved then we will only have our final inspection left.

Moving forward, slowly but surely!

'til next time...

A young man's worst nightmare...

I am afraid we gave some poor unsuspecting young man a very nervous moment.

I was sitting at La Madeleine's with my children when my son heard the sound of a man's dress shoes walking across the floor. Apparently Wythe associates the click-clack sound with my husband, his little face lit up and he said to me "I hear daddy!"  Then he turned around in his chair and right about the time this young man was nearing our table said in a loud and excited voice "THERE'S DADDY!!!"

The poor man almost dropped his tray.

He looked at my son, then looked at me and apparently not recognizing me felt enough relief to continue on his way.

I did catch him glancing over at our table a few times but it may have been to just reassure himself that he has never seen us before.   Probably trying to figure out why he just got called daddy, I doubt he will ever realize it was his shoes.

Sorry, dude....didn't mean to give you a bad moment there.

We enjoyed the rest of our lunch, even though we didn't get a new daddy "to-go".  I'm sure my hubby will be happy about that.

A & W enjoying the waterfront in Old Town Alexandria

'til next time...

Hello Irene, Goodbye Irene

Irene was very good to us.  Very considerate of her to stay to the east and only give us lovely rain and brief power outages.

Since we are more "mountain dwellers" rather than "beach dwellers" we usually weather hurricanes fairly well. But since we are surrounded by trees any combination of wind and rain can cause power outages. We lose power a lot, we lose power if someone coughs.  So, I prepared for Hurricane Irene. I filled water containers so that we could flush toilets if we had no power.  I bought some food that didn't have to be cooked, things like that.

But for the most part the storm stayed away from us. We even went to a "Hurricane party" last night, hoping the weather wouldn't take a turn for the worse while we were out. We headed home about 10pm and it was rainy and windy with some branches and debris on the road but no more so than you get with a bad thunderstorm.

Our power went out a little after midnight. Which would be convenient except that my kiddos are afraid of the dark so they were not please to not have their nightlight.  I have a battery powered night light somewhere but in my foggy state I couldn't remember where. At one point as I sat on the hardwood floor beside my son's bed, rubbing his feet, trying to reassure him, I started to regret the pitcher of Hurricane's we had celebrated with.

But the power came back on, the sun came up and today is a beautiful day!  The weather is always so pretty after a hurricane, I have always thought it is Mother Natures way of apologizing and making peace with us.

Off to enjoy the breezy, sunny, blue sky day....hope everyone up North stays safe! 

Hey Irene, be gentle with New York City!

'til next time...

Addition update

My hubby took some time off work this week and is working on the addition. If we are lucky our 6 month project will be completed within 3 years.

This week he is trying to finish getting the plumbing roughed in so that we can get the inspection on the plumbing done.  The rest of the addition has been signed off on but we need the plumbing inspection so that we can move forward.

I took pictures of the plumbing but it is even boring by addition photo standards so I think I will fore go posting them.

Our goal is to have the toilet working by the Oktoberfest party, two bathrooms would probably work a lot better than one!

'til next time...

Aftershock

This morning I woke up and thought "yesterday we had an earthquake...no big deal"   It may because I was kind of in a brain fog due to the fact my son slept even less than usual.  He kept complaining of being scared of the "thunder and shaking".  I don't know if he was feeling the aftershocks or just remembering the earthquake from that afternoon. Regardless of the reason he was scared, which means he didn't sleep, which means I didn't sleep, which means I have spent quality time with my coffee cup today.

Later in the afternoon I took the kids to the store to do some grocery shopping. As we went through the store I could hear different people talking about the earthquake and I was feeling rather nonchalant about it, earthquake-smearthquake...     Then I heard a rumbling, the rumbling was growing louder and I felt a slight vibration, I admit I started to panic. I looked frantically around noting that I was near the lawn and garden exit, I scooped up my son and pulling my daughter in the cart I started half running half walking towards the exit. Just then I saw several employees rolling a large cart carrying a display.  I was running in fear from a display. Nice.   Of course as soon as I saw that I stopped put my son down and tried to act completely normal. Not sure exactly what I said probably something mature like "son, don't run away from mommy, I don't want to chase you through the store..."   I would like to say I have never unjustly blamed my kids for my embarrassment but I am human.

So, apparently I am still a little "shook" up.  But now it is time to stop thinking about earthquakes and start thinking about hurricanes.  Hello Irene!

'til next time...