Two fireplaces in February!!!

I had this post ready for 2 weeks but had some trouble uploading the photos from work, so it had to wait until I had some uninterrupted time at home with my laptop...  Jack was sick yesterday; he even stayed home from work.  (You KNOW he had to be feeling not-so-good!  In fact, he's taking a nap now; we're staying in today so he can get his strength back.)

After spending a few weekends doing the bedroom fireplace, it took hubby ONE.DAY to put up the stacked stone on the sitting room fireplace.

I know you're all thinking he's incredible, and he is, but we were working with an advantage:  the gas fireplaces were installed by the fireplace people when we put on the addition, so all he had to do regarding prep work was remove sheetrock, add tileboard, mix mastic, and slap those tiles up there!  The tiles were 4-5 stones high, and 24" long, so that made it a LOT easier.  Also, FYI, we bought the bedroom rock 2 years ago but just got to the project this month; they were even blocks, all rectangular.  The sitting room fireplace stone was ordered a couple of weeks ago, picked up on the Friday of our long weekend, and they've improved the design (yes, it's a different company, too):  they had interlocking ends, about 2" long on each 24" tile, so you see far fewer "seams" where we had to cut and modify to fill in spaces.

I am not the person to describe this in technical detail, so I hope that was enough of an explanation that you could figure it out!!!  Suffice it to say, I think these new fireplace surrounds add a LOT of oomph to those two rooms!!!

This is the one in our bedroom.  It's not a deep mantle; neither of them is.  I'm going to lean framed photos and/or a mirror against it, since hanging photos on a rock wall would mean damaging the rock...

This is the one on the other side, in the sitting room.  The fireplace is see-through and throws heat on both sides.  I'll put framed pictures on this side, too, most probably the focal one will be the painting we had done in Vegas by one of those street painters.  You can click on this link to see what I'm talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzi_BGnY0Vc  We had one done in greens and browns, trees and a lake, to remind us of our lake house...  I'll take a photo of it and post it when I can...

Feeling better...

Not.

Okay, truthfully, I do feel better. My cough is, well, not gone, but certainly on its way out. My swollen neck is less swollen, and I almost have my usually negligible amount of energy at my disposal.

BUT.

Yesterday was a vacation day. On vacation I'm supposed to - okay, not vacate, but certainly rest and relaxation should show up somewhere in the vicinity of a vacation day.

But they didn't.

Saturday - We picked up our red oak floor with the natural stain and hauled it up to the lake in 10 boxes of 20 square feet each. We laid them out on the floor to acclimate. I started cleaning the lake house with the intent of getting rid of the contruction dust that has begun to permanently embed itself between the floorboards.

Sunday - Jack spent ALL DAY (yes, ALL DAY) laying our hardwood floor in the guest room. IT LOOKS AWESOME. Pictures to come in a day or two...

Monday - I have no idea what Jack did all day, but I PAINTED OUR BEDROOM. TWICE. Isn't there some law that the second coat of paint has to be applied a week later, by another person, not the same day by the same person??? My legs hurt from squatting and standing, my back hurts from bending and reaching, and my arms hurt from stretching and painting.

But my room is now the sunny color called "Lemon Delight," which will look awesome with my yellow, green and blue blanket, the yellow crocheted blanket my sister made for me, and the yellow and white blanket my Mom made for us. And by the end of the week, he will be working on the floor in our room, after which we might even be able to move our bed upstairs from what is now our dining room to what is supposed to eventually be our bedroom!

Which means we can move the dinette set into the dining room and I might even be able to schedule a MeetUp or Scrapaholics meeting at my house sometime soon, instead of hauling my butt all over to someone else's home...

And then we'll have to get the floor for the sitting room and then we'll get the railings and then we'll have a housewarming party for our nearest and dearest...

Believe it or not, I'm not dead. My typing/blogging hands were not amputated. I haven't relocated to a part of the world that is computer-less. My computer hasn't even imploded.

I've been busy.

Busy traveling.

Yuk.

Here you go...

Monday, Nov. 5 - Wednesday, Nov. 7 - Hubby and I went to Atlantic City for "Strategic Planning Sessions." These sessions were supposed to keep him busy for part of the three days so that I could lose the $83.60 I'd saved to lose at the casino. The trip was sponsored (paid for) by the credit union; he's a director on the Board. Well, I did lose the $83.60. I won $100 while I was playing with the $83.60, then I put the $100 back in, and for good measure, I lost another $40, just to be sure I was on a real losing streak, not just fooled into thinking I was losing 'cause I was out the $83.60 and the $100... How's this for bending the truth a bit??? I'm only down $40. Here's how I figured this out: The $83.60 was change in a coffe cup that I'd been saving specifically to lose in A.C., so it wasn't taken out of my children's mouths, or from the rent money, so I don't count that as a loss, even though I didn't come home with it. And the $100 I won with that $83.60? It wasn't mine to begin with; it was the casino's money and if I chose to throw that back into the slot machine, well, it wasn't mine anyway! Now, the $40? I took that out of my wallet, so that's really money that was earmarked for lunch or shoes or the electric bill, so that's the amount I'm really down.

Can you spell J-U-S-T-I-F-I-C-A-T-I-O-N??? (Needless to say, it's a good thing I don't go to a casino very often - although I don't play the slots to win big. I just truly enjoy them for some unknown, unexplainable reason. If they had machines I could play with tokens, I'd be just as happy!!!)

Thursday, Nov. 8 - Friday, Nov. 9 - I worked. I had 100+ emails at work and 100+ emails on my personal account. That's too many darn emails! I deleted jokes, ads and stuff that didn't look all that important, so if you're waiting for a response and it doesn't come, you might want to send that email along again...

Saturday, Nov. 10 - Sunday, Nov. 11 - We painted. We painted the whole first floor of the lake house Cottage White, except for the dining room which we painted Melted Butter. I originally wanted Spiced Pumpkin for the dining room, but the nice man at the Home Depot told me that other customers who had used that color likened it to living inside or next to a school bus! He recommended Melted Butter, and we're very happy with the way it turned out! (Pictures next week, since I didn't bring my cable to download them today!) I also put up some lace curtains in the dining room; don't really like seeing the curtain rod when they're open so I'll be buying some floral garlands to loop along the rod.

Monday, Nov. 12 - Wednesday, Nov. 14 - I was traveling in Alexandria, VA, and Arlington, VA, with my boss, on business. We had 5 meetings over three days, not too much, probably not really enough, but I had reserved some time for another account I'd hoped to meet with and they bailed at the last minute. And another one had to cancel a dinner meeting...

Here's a great one... One of our editors was supposed to meet us at a meeting on Monday afternoon. He never showed up. After the meeting, I called his home office (in Alexandria!) and left a message saying we'd missed him, that I hoped he hadn't confused the Monday meeting with the Tuesday dinner (with the same account). On Tuesday, we had a morning meeting in Arlington, and an afternoon one in the same city. I was able to move the afternoon one up so that we didn't have to hang around town for 4 hours (thanks, Julie!). We went back to the hotel. My boss said he was going to check phone messages, then go to Starbucks to use the wireless internet and return some emails. I went to the hotel gym. (Get up off the floor - I really did!) While I was walking and sweating on the treadmill, my cell phone rang and I answered it. It was X, the editor, apologizing for missing the meeting. "We've had 14 years together, and they were great years," I heard. "She had seizures yesterday and I had to take her to the hospital, " I heard. "She's at a meeting now and we have an appointment with an oncologist at 4pm today; I don't think I'll be able to make dinner."

Of course I responded appropriately: "Don't even think of dinner. Just stay home, do what you have to do. You don't need to come out to some boring business dinner..." At dinner that night, they asked about X and I told them what had happened.

When I got back to the office on Thursday of last week, I dropped X and email, asking how the oncologist's meeting went. Here's his response: "Hi Krys, well, she's riddled with cancer and there's not much we can do about it. She had surgery to remove some tumors last year about this time and a few sessions of chemo, but she won't be able to handle that again. We'll have her for a little longer, trying to make her comfortable, making sure she's not in pain (tough to do with cats). Thanks so much for asking and again I'm really sorry to flake on the SHRM meetings this year. How'd it go anyway? Warm regards...mcds"

Stop laughing at me.

Mea culpa, mea culpa!

It's been a while, I know.

BUT, I have lots to share!!

WE HAVE WALLS! The Sheetrockers came and put up a ceiling on the first floor (BONUS: the ceiling is about 3" higher than the previous one!) and walls in the staircase and on the entire 2nd floor! Only a couple of tweaks: we have to finish the wall under the new fireplace 'cause the installers need access when they hook us up to check for gas leaks (ok, I can understand that) and we have to adjust the guides on one of the pocket doors (it's tight with walls up and the door doesn't glide as easily as it did).

I was afraid the rooms would seem much smaller with walls, but not really. A bit, but not horribly so. Of course, when furniture gets placed the rooms will shrink around me but I'm going to try my darndest to keep a lot of clutter out of the new space...

Looking from the kitchen, down the hall to the new staircase (1st floor bathroom on your left).









From the base of the stairs, looking upstairs. I'm trying to find a nice chandelier to hang just low enough so you can see it from the outside...







At the top of the stairs is our sitting room. We will install floor to ceiling bookshelves on either side of the fireplace. The fireplace is 2-sided so we can see it from our bedroom on the other side of that wall... Jack's standing in our mini-hallway. If he turns 90 degrees to his left, our bedroom door will be on his left, the bathroom door on his right, and the spare room door directly in front of him.

This is one side of our new bathroom, with tub and big shower! I have to find a vanity and some tile in the next week or two... I'm stressed!






I'm on vacation next week for 3 days, in Atlantic City, then traveling 3 days the following week to Alexandria, VA - SWAMPED with work prepping for the trip... so if I'm missing a week or so in my blog, I promise to return, post trips, pre-holiday...

We're so sore.

Our backs hurt, his legs hurt, my blister hurts (a new one, on my hand), and we're darn tired.

This weekend we moved everything that we have on the first floor of the lake house into the basement. The Sheetrocker told DH that he wanted to start this week, rather than the week of Nov. 5, which is what we had planned.

And instead of saying, "No, sorry, we won't be ready for you this soon. How about maybe next week?", DH said, "Ok, we'll get the house ready this weekend." Keep in mind that this means two less weekends than we thought we had to do this, PLUS we had rewiring to do on several fixtures, phone lines to run, some framing to fix...

For the record, don't try this. Ever.

We moved (until we stopped counting!) two dressers (10 drawers total, filled), two bookshelves (12 shelves total, filled, which had to be unshelved and reshelved), two sofas, one bed, one quilt rack, one table, six chairs, two lamps, the entire contents of four open kitchen shelves, the microwave, the coffee pot, the paper towel holder, the box of miscellaneous stuff that accumulates on your counter when you don't have a junk drawer, two glass containers filled with dog biscuits for the dog we don't own (but we have a neighborhood dog that visits us!), the dish drainer, the cutting board, nine framed pictures, two handmade wreaths, a computer table, a computer monitor, two speakers, two CPUs, a coffee table, plus all the assorted crap we've managed to either accumulate over the past six years or relocate from our primary residence to the lake house 'cause there was room there, room to fill...

Remember. It all has to get moved back.

That sound you hear? That's me, crying. That other sound? My bones, creaking.

We've both decided "WE ARE NOT MOVING ALL THIS STUFF BACK UPSTAIRS." We've decided we will take this opportunity to sort through the junk before we move it back upstairs. We will either "keep it," trash it" or "donate it."

I want the clean look. I want a house that can receive visitors without being cleaned first. A house that doesn't need all the crap on the dining room table shoved into a closet or a drawer while we run to answer the doorbell. A house that I could take a picture of and not be embarrassed by if I chose to post it on a blog.

Here's an example of what I mean:

When we decided to get married, I spoke with our photographer and told her that I wasn't interested in all the cliche photos of the bride posing in front of a mirror, looking off into the distance, contemplating the massive life change she's about to experience... The photographer agreed.

When the day arrived, and the photographer did, too, she suggested she just take a few of those shots. That didn't mean I'd have to pay for them to be printed, blown up, included in our album, but I'd have the proofs. After all, what if one of them turned out to be my favorite picture of myself? (First of all, there are very few photos of myself that I actually like...)

I got carried away in the moment. I let her take the darn pictures.

The one I didn't want? The one of me looking into the mirror at my coiffed head, complete with veil? In the background, on the dresser, my husband-to-be's nose spray.

Obviously we never put anything away...

I guess minor injuries are going to be a part of my immediate future...

This weekend I hit my thumb with a hammer. Darn, it hurt! That's what I get for actually helping, rather than supervising... Thankfully it's just a bit stiff and a bit bruised, no broken bones or blood blisters or anything like that...

We put in the pocket doors, the french closet doors, the bathroom door (which still needs to be shimmed), and bought the basement door (which will hopefully be installed this weekend).

We passed our insulation inspection so we can call the Sheetrockers. We have no more inspections until the final. The fireplace is in. The propane tanks are in; we passed the air pressure check. I just have to arrange to have them filled.

No time to explain a lot now, but here are some pictures:

There's a light at the end of this construction tunnel!

Insulation - done.
Propane tanks - installed.
Fireplace - being installed Wednesday.
Insulation inspection - hopefully Wednesday; if not, Friday.
Pocket Doors - hopefully being installed this weekend.
Basement door - ditto.
SheetRock - first week of November.

If these things go as planned, we can turn the heat on after that, install the floors, install tile and fixtures in the bathroom, paint the walls, install lights, and start moving into the space.

Imagine - actually using the space to live in, having it almost finished...

The mind boggles at the thought...

Pinkie toe update

My work pal went and got me some Adidas flip flops from Foot Locker. She tried CVS - they're a seasonal item. She went to Foot Locker - they were $19.99. She went to Fabco, a local show store - they were red with sequins and beads.

I chose brown and pink floral flip flops from Foot Locker, despite the price ($20 flip flops!?!?) I was wearing brown that day, and have been wearing brown quite a bit this year...

I went home to pick up mom to go food shopping. By the time I got there, my toes were so swollen that I asked if I should go to the Immedicenter. I felt silly, but I was scared. My toes had NEVER looked like that before!

At first Mom laughed. Then she looked at my toes.

We went to the Immedicenter.

Without going into all the detail about the 1-1/2 hour wait, and all the patients who came in after me but went in before me ("They're here to see the nurse," her voice drops, "for drug tests. You're next to see the doctor!"), apparently current medical protocol frowns on lancing blisters because that could allow germs easier access. After a consultation with "all the doctors here," they decided that since I'd most likely lance it at home anyway, the on call should do it for me.

NOT!!! I would NOT lance it at home! Are you NUTS???

Once that was done, she put these two little Band Aids on my toes. "Are you for real? Not a cast? Not a splint? Not even a pair of crutches? I'm gonna get zip-zero-zilch in the way of sympathy from my husband with two Band Aids!" (Heck, I got no sympathy from the doctor!)

Needless to say, I didn't get casts, splints or crutches. But I did get me some sympathy from DH! When he heard that I went to the Immedicenter, he thought car accident, or blood and gore (well, he wasn't far off there!). When I tossed the covers off my toes - suffice it to say he didn't laugh at me, and he went and got me some iced tea. (I'm sure he laughed all the way to the kitchen, but he didn't laugh in my face!)

Not too much else is happening in my life right now... DH has off on Monday, and I don't, so perhaps on Sunday night, when I'm home alone, I can do some cleaning/straightening that I can't do when he's around...

Our propane tanks are being installed on Monday. We might be air tested on Tuesday. Our gas fireplace is being installed on Wednesday. Our insulation inspection is on Friday. Hopefully we'll be Sheetrocked the first week in November. Then we can actually turn on the heat/ac. Keep your fingers crossed for us, okay?!? Thanks!

Let's play catch up...

Lots has been going on but I just haven't had enough time to write about it... For instance...

1. DSD M is moving this weekend. Not far, but it still requires packing up one apartment and unpacking it in another. She's moving from a town where her ex-boyfriend used to live to a town where her father used to live. Ex-BF's friends have been really treating her poorly - she ran into Ex's former roommate in a bar and decided to say hi. "Do I know you?" And he turned his back on her. WHAT??? AND to top it all off, you all don't even know the background: Ex cheated on DSD with his best friend's wife, who left her husband to move in with Ex, and now is getting a divorce, BUT apparently Ex isn't real happy in this relationship either; he's looking to get out... You cheat on me and your friends are rude to me??? I don't get it. DSD has been really hurt and thankfully has found some new friends and the mental strength to just move away from the crap...
2. [entry removed 09/11/11]
3. We insulated about 90% of our new second floor this weekend (photos to come at a later date). I tried using a mask - it made my glasses steam up. My legs hurt so much from squatting down, standing up, squatting down, standing up... I'm still a bit itchy from the fiberglass - mostly on my right hand - but for the most part, it was much easier than I thought it would be.
4. We cancelled our propane installation 'cause we didn't get to finish the pad the tanks are to stand on. When I called to cancel, I found out that they install the block and the pad when they install the tanks. We didn't know that. We cancelled 'cause we didn't know that. Can't wait to tell DH tonight - if you hear about a husband's head just spontaneously blowing up off his shoulders in NJ tonight, that would be my DH!!!
5. My nephew's car is laid up - something to do with the fuel intake, we think, or the fuel pump. He's had it a grand, whopping 1 month, gotten a ticket, run out of gas... What next? DO NOT MENTION THE WORD ACC-DENT!!!
6. We're going to Las Vegas, Baby, in February! Yay! And Atlantic City this November! Yay! And DH wants to take a cruise to recover from the renovation migraines - whenever he's ready to go, I'm ready to go!!! I'll also be heading out to San Diego in March or April, and will try to coordinate a visit with someone I know in the SW at the same time. I love to travel...

Well, those were a few mini headlines - you're a bit more caught up in what's been going on in my life. Some arbitrary comments: I really wish I could be scrapping more. I had a productive reading weekend (You've Been Warned, by James Patterson; The Bone Garden, by Tess Gerritsen; and another, to be named when I remember it!!!). I just started Power to the People, by Laura Ingraham.
Someone I'm related to and I made a list of 10 books we'd like to read this calendar year. After a somewhat iffy start, I've totally gone off track and am reading what strikes my fancy, be it mindless fiction or political-oriented essays that are as right-handed as I am. My mind is not made of mush, but my willpower seems to be - not stickin' to that list! (Maybe next year we should make the list shorter - 6 books, 1 every other month. Now THAT I could handle...)

We passed our initial framing inspection.

Yay. Thank God. I asked the Zoning/Construction secretary if she could ask Mr. O'C to arrive after 1:30 so that I could work a 1/2 day on Friday. Nope. She could ask him to arrive somewhere between 1 and 4, though...

So I went to work Friday morning and left at 11am. Nothing is easy in my life, you see. I had forgotten to print out the photos we needed to prove that we'd insulated the soffets correctly, so I had to order them online in the morning. Now, had I walked into Costco at 10am, I could have the pictures within an hour. Ordering on line, though, they gave me 3pm as the ready time.

So I called and begged and the very nice man behind the Costco photo counter said, "Sure, they'll be done for 11:15am today." And they were (Thank you, very nice man behind the Costco photo counter!). Then I BOOKED up Route 3, to Route 46, to Route 80, to Route 15, to Route 181, and then onto all those teeny lake roads until I got to my house at 12:38.

And Mr. O'C arrived at 1pm. On the dot. Not a minute earlier, not a minute later. (Good thing I got there on time/early!)

He was there about a 1/2 hour, 45 minutes. WE PASSED. That's all that matters, in the grand scheme of things, but there were a few things we had to promise to do (more nails, insulation around the condensate trap, etc.), but he passed us. THANK YOU, MR. O'C!

THEN I had hours to kill until DH was going to arrive, so I went to the mall.

And even though I'm not a shoe girl, I spent $185 on shoes. On 3 pairs of shoes. On 3 pairs of Aerosoles. I can't copy the pix in from their website, but I bought Matter of Fact in black leather and in black patent leather and Kitty Kap in black patent leather. Then, 'cause I wasn't broke enough, I went and spent $45 on a pair of black pants, 'cause we all know I need another pair of black pants...

I've got a ride to school today so I'm outta here!!!

Some bad news: Aunt Eleanor died this past weekend. She was 91. The wake is tonight, and the funeral tomorrow. I ordered flowers from John...

Aunt Emeline called from her new cell phone to tell Patty and this is how the conversation went:

Aunt Em: Patty! Annie and I are going to Pal's! (An aside: a nice restaurant here in NE NJ)
Patty: That's great, Aunt Em! How are things?
Aunt Em: Good, good. We're going to Pal's now, for lunch.
Patty: Great, Aunt Em! How's Aunt Annie?
Aunt Em: She's the same. You know how she is. I'm calling from my new cell phone!
Patty: You got a cell phone? That's great, Aunt Em! When did you get it?
Aunt Em: We're here at Pal's, I have to go. Oh, before I forget, Uncle Mozzie called Aunt Eleanor.
Patty: What? (An aside: Uncle Mozzie has been dead for easily 12 or 14 years.)
Aunt Em: Aunt Eleanor, she died down the shore this morning, at Tony & Joan's. We're at Pal's. I'll call you later with the details. Eleanor (An aside: Little Eleanor - Aunt Eleanor's granddaughter) called Aunt Sara and she's calling us all to tell us (about Aunt Eleanor's death). I'll talk to you later, Patty.

That's really how a conversation with Aunt Em goes - I love her with all my heart, but you're definitely pulling out a few hairs by the end of a conversation with her. And by the way, she's in her late 80s now, too, so this whole conversation is at your loudest voice! And now we have to factor in a cell phone!!!

House update:


We are sided. Completely. And it looks SOOO nice! See? (Sorry about the two cars in the lower right-hand corner - that doesn't look so nice!)





And I will add a few more pictures here so you can see some detail not quite obvious in the whole-house picture...


We added a little decorative fan to the largest peak so it wouldn't look so blah...











This is our front door light.









And here are some handcrafted-by-Jack motion detector lights. He actually bought them at Costco, then took them apart and put them back together so that we could have light on three sides of the house, rather than just one. He split the light fixture, rewired it, and mounted them so that there are two individual lights on the front of the house, one at either end, and one on each of the sides of the house, facing the ramp and the boat/propane tanks.

The weekend was rather quiet. Got a little sun on Sunday. Made a ham when we got home last night (cooking 'til midnight!) but that's good eatin' for the rest of the week! (Just have to figure out what recipes on what days)

Okay, J got his first parking ticket. And he's mad at the meter maid! Let's ignore the fact that he was parked for more than two hours in a restricted spot (parking for 2 hours, max) AND that he was parked there under the sign that said "2 hour parking." I could slap him silly! And he got it within the first week of having his license! I suppose it was to be expected - you can't tell him anything, even though we try ("Don't drive to school, J, there's no parking and you'll get a ticket!")...

That's about it for today... I think I'll give myself a few days off from blogging, since it's quite apparent I have little to say... I don't want to bore you all to tears so I'll wait to see if anything really cool happens in the next day or so...

Construction Update

The siding guy didn't come Saturday and Monday as promised. Apparently there was an injury/accident at the Sparta site and he wanted his guys to finish that job before OSHA came on-site... Can't say I blame him; I've had to fill out OSHA paperwork before. A real pain in the behind...

But he did send them on Tuesday and the house is almost done! Here are a couple of pictures... After you enjoy them, scroll on down to see the latest our saga...

SO, congratulations to DSD - she is now a fully tenured teacher!!! We went out to Chipotle to celebrate last night.

We drove up to the lake after work to look at the house. I took some pictures. We left. We got home and DH realized he'd left his wallet and his paycheck at the lake. Needless to say, he's a guy, so he was all bent about it. God forbid I drive him around for the next three days!!! He had every intention of turning around and driving back up there alone, blowing off dinner with his daughter, to get his darn wallet. I suggested he wait until after we ate and I could drive up with him; I really didn't want him driving up alone. I could see he was tired and I was afraid, quite frankly, he'd drive off the road! I thought if we drove up together, we could split the driving. To say nothing of the fact that HIS LICENSE IS IN HIS WALLET.

After much whining and muttering under his breath, he agreed. We had a lovely dinner with M to celebrate her tenure. She and I had a great talk about the Boyfriend. He's a bit clingier than she'd like so I suggested to her she simply explain to him that she needs some space. M gives a lot, to everyone, without expecting anything in return. (Just like her dad.) That can be tiring. She just spent an entire weekend watching Ally, the handicapped girl she babysits for once in a while. Ally had several siezures, really bad ones, ones that scared M. And she's used to them. Ally also threw a couple tantrums. It was a really rough weekend for M and the man wanted to be with her. All the time. Just sitting around watching TV, just being with her.

Now, to the untrained eye, this might seem nice. A boyfriend who actually doesn't mind just sitting around, relaxing. Ah, but, no. M needs her own space, her own time, to recharge. And that's okay. She's got her own routine, her own habits, and no one really should get in her way... And I don't mean that in a bad way. But sometimes you just want to crawl into bed, pull the covers over your head, and sleep. Especially after you didn't sleep all weekend! And school was starting the next day! M seems to feel that he might not be able to understand her, but I told her to give him the benefit of the doubt and explain herself to him. Try to make him understand it's not a reflection on him, that it's not that she doesn't want to be with him, it's just that sometimes she just wants to be by herself. That she needs that alone time. That quiet time.

They stopped by the house the other day. He talks. Again, I'm amazed to meet a boyfriend who can carry on a conversation with a parent. Granted, said parent is only 8 years older than the boyfriend, but it's still such a switch! I'm hoping she recognizes the good, tolerates the bad (if it's not too bad) and gives this one a chance.

IF he's not a loser in sheep's clothing...

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have beautiful pictures of our fully-sided house! They started last week, and were supposed to finish over the holiday weekend (believe it or not!) but he cancelled on Saturday, something about an accident on another job site and he wanted his guys to finish there so they weren't involved in an OSHA investigation, if one occurred, 'cause they'd be gone...

The siding guy suggested we buy some ornate corbels to support the front door's overhang, but the time frame didn't work. Jack built these. They are sort of farmhouse-y. I like them!

Jack also had to remove all the ceilings from the first floor so that A the framer could put in some "bridges. " Basically they're x-shaped braces between the joists, at intervals of 8'. Because the joists are man-made, they need the extra support. At the end by the cantilevered 2 extra feet, he also had to put in some blocking. Blocking is an extra sheet of plywood nailed to the joists for extra support as they hang over the lower floor.

J gave me a ride in his new car last night. It's impossible. He can't be old enough to drive his Cioci around. It's just not fathomable.

DH is a happy, happy camper. When he got to the house yesterday, the sider had been there, checking out the job site. They will be siding my house on Friday, Saturday, and Monday - at no extra charge. When DH asked him how much extra it would cost to have it done over the weekend, Lance said, "How much more? Nothing more. I quoted you a price, that's your price."

Now THAT'S the way to build a business!

I had pizza with the neighbors last night. And a falafel ball. It was yummy.

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend! It's supposed to be a beautiful weekend here in NJ - sunny and in the 80s. I plan on sitting outside to get some end-of-summer color (not too much, of course), relaxing and taking some pictures. Maybe I'll read my book on digital photography, a hobby I'd like to take up sometime soon...

Nothing more 'til next week - have a great holiday!!!

Don't know if I mentioned it but I bought a mini-digital camera to tide me over 'til my "real" one comes back from the repair shop...

Here are some photo updates of this past week's work...
Some of my soon-to-be-completed central heat/AC!
The plumbing for the tub.
Our new front door with a $4.86 curtain from Wal-Mart.
Our new front screen door - what a fiasco to get that installed. We have so many extra holes drilled in the door jamb, the door, the trim molding, etc. It should have been video-taped for America's Funniest Home Videos! Considering my DH is VERY handy and is helping put this addition together, you'd think he could install a screen door in his sleep. After all, it's far from the first one he's ever installed...

I guess I distract him too much. And my brain was on siesta all weekend - even with instructions in my hand, we messed this up as much as we possibly could! Thank goodness the mistakes aren't visible on the outside, and they're only noticeable if you know to look for them!

Photos, Part Deux!!
Looking upstairs from the dining-room-to-be, I will be picking out a chandelier to hang in the staircase, rather than just some wall sconces - I think it will look nice leaving that light on upstairs when we're out...
This is some of the piping Plumber J installed last week. It reminds me of that screensaver...
Here's the road leading to our house. It almost looks sort of funny without lumber and trucks filling the space...
Here are our newly installed French doors, between what is now the living room and what will be the dining room (our current bedroom).
The same doors, looking from the bedroom/dining room into the living room...

If you add a little Tyvek to the second floor, this is pretty much what the house looks like right now.
They had to extend the chimney and the two fireplace liners above the new second floor. We were really tempted to start the fire the other day (it was 51 degrees in the morning! After 97+ days, that felt really cold! BUT we didn't - I don't know if we have to get an inspection on the chimney...)
Here's a shot of our newly installed stairs - the lake is at your back, and at the top of the staircase there's a landing and you turn 180 degrees. When you enter the sitting room on the 2nd floor, you're facing the lake, with a view to die for! Also, you can see that 2"x4" supporting the landing - picture a wall alongside the stairs where it's started to get framed out, making a right angle to the 2"x4", then another right angle to the front of the house. The left window will remain visible, but there will be a door there to enter the lower staircase, to access the basement. Those stairs will go from front to back, into the basement, coming out facing the walk out door to the lake.
From the sitting room, this is one side of our double-sided-fireplace-to-be; the other side will be in our bedroom.
Here are our new sliding glass doors and windows in the living room, with all the grids finally installed!

Since I can't figure out how to add more than 5 pictures at a time (I don't think I can), I'm making two separate entries this morning, to catch you all up to date on the construction.

We have stairs.

Some stairs. Stairs from the first floor to the new second floor.

We don't have stairs from the first floor to the basement. Which means, gentle reader, that we have to go outside, down the rather steep hill, around to the back of the house, to the basement walk out door, and into the basement to get the extra staples DH needs for the stapler. Then we have to reverse the trip, climb up the rather steep hill and back inside the house.

Only to find out that there are two sizes of staples down there, and of course, I brought the wrong ones upstairs. Why? Because DH didn't tell me there were two different sizes of staples, and he was even wrong about where in the basement they were, but I managed to located them. [For the record, the second set wasn't anywhere near the first. For an uber-organized male, that was a big oops!]

Oh. Sorry. I didn't bring them "upstairs." BECAUSE WE DON'T HAVE STAIRS THERE.

Now, going upstairs to the addition is a pleasure. Those stairs are wide, oak and beautiful. I love climbing upstairs, even to do work. I have to pick out a bannister and a newel post. And a chandelier. For the stair landing. It will hand in front of a window in the hallway and will look ever-so-nice at night...

This whole downstairs thing? The stairs they made to go from the first floor to the basement didn't fit. They "missed" the fact that our foundation wall has both 8" and 12" cinder blocks, and they change from 8" to 12" right in the middle of the staircase! I think we're going to put a ladder down into the hole in the floor that currently leads into our basement. Sigh. More ladders.

I absolutely promise to get pictures posted this week, no matter what.

Stairs.

I can't even guess at how many times I've moaned and groaned about having to climb up a flight of stairs. But as is true about other things, we really take stairs for granted.

As you know, if you're either (a) a reader of this blog, or (b) anyone who knows me or my husband personally, we're under construction at the lake house. It took only three days for the framers to put a second floor on our home.

Now, keep in mind that I'm not a fan of ranch-style homes. I grew up in a colonial style house, with living quarters on the first floor, and bedrooms/bathrooms on the second. That's my idea of a home. You shouldn't, IMHO, be able to just sort of roll out of bed into the kitchen. You should be able to go to sleep while your housemates (be they family or husband) have company downstairs and not worry about someone hearing you brush your teeth or go potty. It's sort of like separation of "life" and "home," or "day" and "night."

Well, we have a second floor at the lake now. It's not livable, but we can work up there. The only thing is:

I have to climb a ladder to get there.

Now, I know, dear readers, that you're thinking, "So what? It's a ladder. Climb it already and stop whining."

However, (1) I'm not a fan of heights, no matter how low they might be, and when I climb a ladder, I'm almost always climbing to a spot higher than where I start, and eventually I have to climb back down from a spot higher than I'm heading toward, and (2) my legs are too long to climb a ladder.

Yea, sure, go ahead and laugh. But I'm serious. When I try to climb a ladder (and despite my professed fear of heights, I do, to help DH do his work!), my knees hit the rungs or the sides of the ladder and it's very awkward. Can I clamber up said ladder with my legs spread wide and pointed outward? Sure. I look stupid and I'm unsteady, but it can be done.

I don't do it.

I take one rung at a time, one leg at a time (always the right one). And it takes a lot longer than a flight of stairs would.

The point of all of this?

They're delivering our stairs today and they're installing them tomorrow!!!

Life is good.

I started physical therapy yesterday. It was a piece of cake: a few leg lifts (2 different kinds), tightening my quads (2 different exercises), some icing (cool down) and electrotherapy. Then Lorraine, my therapist, enlightened me: "Of course today was easy. It's like fishing. We reel you in with an easy day, then put the screws to you next time!" Basically, it gets me back in the door at least once...

I understand I will be adding in some bike work, some treadmill time, and some weight exercises into my routine. In addition, she's assigned me some homework:

1. Hip/knee Strengthening: Hip Adduction - Isometric - With ball or folded pillow between knees, squeeze knees together. Hold 10 seconds. Repeat 10 times per set. Do 2 sets per session. Do 2 sessions per day.
2. Hip/knee Strengthening: Straight Leg Raise (Phase I) - Tighten muscles on front of right thigh, then lift leg to height of left knee, keeping knee locked. Repeat 20 times per set. Do 2 sets per session. Do 2 sessions per day.
3. Hip/knee: Straight Leg Raise with External Leg Rotation - Lie on back with right leg straight, opposite leg bent. Rotate straight leg out and lift to height of left knee. Repeat 20 times per set. Do 2 sets per session. Do 2 sessions per day.
4. Hip/knee Quad Set: Slight Flexion - Tense muscles on top of right thigh. Hold 10 seconds. Repeat 5 times per set. Do 2 sets per session. Do 2 sessions per day.

Of course, I have to do it for both legs, not just the right one. I'd look pretty darned funny if only one leg was developed/strengthened...

Tonight is Scrapping Game Night. Should be fun!

The plumber has begun. He thinks he'll be back even next week, too. We're hiring someone to insulate. The chimney should be done today. The sider will come next week, perhaps. It's getting there, it really is. In a couple of weeks, you won't know that we don't have walls inside, that it's not livable inside - the outside will look like a new house!!! I can't wait!