Honey Do ... everything

MAC 5 Months

2012-01-11T07:00:00.000-08:00

Miles turned 5 months old on Wednesday. We celebrated his first Christmas and New Years.
Our Christmas wasn't very Christmas-y this year. Mostly due to Miles being sick with ear infections for over a month, Beau getting some virus that effectively incapacitated him for 10 days and me getting a version of the virus that put me out of commission for 2 or 3 days. I didn't have the time, energy or desire to decorate. I did put up the Christmas tree, but had my mom finish decorating it while she kept Miles one morning.
Miles health recap: the amoxicillian only cleared up 1 ear, so we tried a 2nd antibiotic (omnicef) for about 6 days, at which point we realized he was still feeling horrible so we brought him back in and the doc prescribed augmentin. The augementin finally kicked both ear infections (confirmed on Dec 23... who knows what we would have done if he was still sick). In retrospect, we think Miles had some version of the virus too. Every time we would pick him up, move him or touch him he would scream. He ran fever and was inconsolable for a couple of days.
Beau health recap: The virus showed itself in Beau with muscle weakness in his arms, fever, and general achey-ness (I have no idea how to spell that). His hands and arms were so weak he couldn't open the 2 liter of coke. Big thanks to Pippi, Honey and Shelley for spending time with Miles so that Beau and I could recuperate.
Jenny health: The virus showed up in me by throwing up (while at work). I left work at lunch got home and went to bed. I ran the highest fever I have since I was in high school -- 101 degF. Everyone I talked to asked "are you pregnant?" Terrified that I might be, (thanks to all the girls I know who got pregnant while breastfeeding) I took a pregnancy test. *Sigh of relief* NEGATIVE. 12 months apart is a little too close for comfort.

5 Month Milestones

LSU embarrassed themselves in the national championship game laying down a big goose-egg vs. Alabama

We're finally back on some sort of schedule after all the sickness.
Miles is beginning to consider sleeping through the night. He's doing 4 or 5 hours at a time.
He rolls over sometimes when put on his tummy (but really he's done this since he was a month old).
He loves playing in his over-stimulation-station (exersaucer).
He's gotten VERY interested in Izzy. He watches her and reaches out for her when she comes to smell him. Izzy is very good and lets him grab her face without any protest.
He's getting interested in food. I'm planning to delay solids until 6 months, but he's tasted some things.
He's working on sitting up without help. He's not too good at it yet. He always tips over to one side or the other.
Anything and everything gets put in his mouth.
He recognizes faces and people. I love it when he smiles when I walk in from work :)

2011-12-09T09:08:00.001-08:00

**EDIT 1/9/12** I started writing this post a month ago, sooo Miles is actually nearly 5 months old now.**

Miles is nearly 4 months old and I haven't posted his 3 month pictures yet. I'm not even sure I've taken them...

In the last month he's started really smiling and laughing.
He's basically outgrown his 3 month footie pajamas.
He's doing well sitting up with assistance.
He had his first encounter with the fabled "pink stuff"* thanks to a double ear infection.
Tigers have completed their first ever 13-0 season

*Apparently the amoxicillin we got was dye free and thus not pink. What is wrong with this world?!

since apparenly I fail at finishing posts, I'm just going to post this then I'll eventually follow-up with pictures.

2 Months

2011-10-24T06:47:00.000-07:00

I'm late on posting this...

23" 11 lb 8 oz.

(He's playing his air guitar)

Two Month Milestones:

Smiling

Miles is no longer a heathen (he got baptised)

Mom went back to work

The Tigers continued their great football season

We had our first cold snap and the footie pajamas made their debut

Mom got her new car and sold her old one

Miles grew out of some of his clothes and switched to size 1 diapers

The 6 PM to 9 PM witching hours continue

Beau and I are slowing figuring out what keeps the kid happy and how to manage his unhappiness. Overall he's a pretty easy kid and I have to remind myself that when he's screaming at me.

Miles' Birth Story

2011-09-15T13:20:00.001-07:00

I feel that I should go ahead and record what I remember of Miles' birth story so that 25 years (or more) from now I can pull it out and let his wife read it as she prepares for the birth of her first. Or something cliched like that...

Beware, there are discussions of bodily fluids and needles below. If you don't want to read about it, don't. Also, about 50% of this post has to do with the timing of Miles' arrival and my pregnancy, not the actual birth.

From the time I found out I was pregnant, my goal was to go in to labor on my own and to not have to have a c-section. I made that known to my doctor and she said that was fine, so long as both me and the baby were healthy and happy. It seems like everyone I know of was being induced and I didn't want to be one of those people who got induced because they just got uncomfortable and impatient. So the pregnancy progressed normally until week 26, when I did my glucose test, and hooray, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I tried following the diabetic diet given to me by the nutritionist, but it wasn't working for me. Being who I am, I did some "research" on the internet and after being terrified because I was predisposing myself and my kid to type 2 diabetes and obesity along with the increased chances of having a large baby (and therefore increased chances of c-section) my doctor suggested I cut out all carbs, and so I did. I didn't eat (much) bad stuff and actually lost weight through the 2nd half of my pregnancy. Baby continued to grow, and he even continued to measure a little big. One of the highlights of all my doctor visits was when I expressed concern (my dr. probably saw it as obsessive concern) over having a big baby, she said "Well, you could always take up smoking. That's shown great results at causing small babies." At that moment, I knew she understood my absurdity, and how to deal with me.

So pregnancy continued on rather normal for a few more weeks until I went in for a monthly appointment at week 32, and my blood pressure was high. (like 145/79 ish) Dr. said that I had to go to the lab, let them draw some blood and do a 24 hour urine collection. When I asked how I was supposed to do that at work, she laughed and said "oh, you're not going to work." Since I was about a month away from starting the largest project I had ever planned that was simply not going to do. (Don't doctors understand that overachieving people like me get more stressed out by NOT being at work!?) So I did my lab collections and the results said that I didn't have preeclampsia (technically) but that I was on the edge. Doctor's orders were to have blood pressure checks 2x/week, ultrasounds 1x/week, dr. appointments and 24 hour collections 1x/2 weeks. Yay. (not...)

Because I work with mostly men, and they're all basically terrified of pregnant women just dropping the kid out unannounced, (or they're concerned for my health) I compromised with my boss that I would work 2 days a week from home and 3 from work (he wanted me at home all the time). This allowed me to continue working and to wrap up everything I needed to, but still get my rest and do all my doctor appointment stuff without the stress of driving to work afterwards. This worked well for about 5 weeks at which point I went in for an ultrasound, and the tech stressed me out by saying "this is a BIG baby." After that, I was convinced Dr. Davis was going to make me be induced that week. Instead (because my BP and protein were up) she just made me stop going to work and actually sit at home and go insane/rest. Apparently she wanted me to actually rest on my 2 days/week off and not clean the house/run errands/other stuff. So bed rest GREATLY helped my blood pressure and protein, and my labs almost looked like I didn't actually have preeclampsia.

**(Jump forward to 1 week post-partum, I get readmitted to the hospital for preeclampsia and they give me a magnesium sulfate drip. Note to all pregnant women: avoid MgSO4 drips at all costs. They give it to you for pre-term labor and to deal with preeclampsia. It's miserable. Imagine being on the verge of a migraine as long as you're on the drip and radiating heat. You can't sleep because you're so uncomfortable, and nothing works for pain.)**

So lots of details, none about Miles' birth, and all about the timing. We did the weekly ultrasound and Dr. appointment thing for a couple more weeks, each time pushing off the decision with whether to induce or not because I REALLY didn't want to be induced, and Dr. Davis was fine with it as long as both the baby and I were healthy. Week 38 came along, and I was still doing fine and trying everything possible to go into labor on my own (except Castor oil). Nothing had worked, so we waited out the weekend. At this point, Beau and I had decided that we should probably induce the following week so that the baby didn't get to big, and so that my preeclampsia could be managed. Induction scheduled for Thursday, August 11 at 5:30 AM.

Beau and I didn't sleep much Wednesday night. I woke up at 4:20 to call the hospital to make sure they had room for me. They did, so I took my antibacterial soap shower and prepared to go to the hospital. We left the house a little later than we should have because we had to take the "Last picture as a duo" picture. We got to the hospital around 5:40, did the paperwork thing and went on up to labor and delivery. The nurse got my IV started on the 2nd try (and after me vomiting) and the pitocin drip started.

Christy came to keep Beau and me company about 9. Around 10:30, Dr. Davis came in, decided I looked WAAAY to comfortable and broke my water. Christy warned me that it was pretty gross when she had hers broken with David, but I was not prepared. I was totally disgusted and every time I moved more fluid would come out and it grossed me out even more. I am definitely glad that didn't happen to me in public. Breaking my water definitely increased my pain (because instead of a head pushing through a nice cushion of amniotic fluid, it's pushing directly on your cervix). I labored unmedicated until about 4:30, and didn't progress much at all (like 2 cm's all day...). Throughout the day my blood pressure had been on the high end of things and seemed to be increasing. Around 4:30, I decided I needed my epidural, and after a bag of fluids, got it. The epidural seemed to take effect almost immediately, and I was smiling by the time that Beau and Christy came back into the room.

I was able to rest some after getting the epidural. Dr. Davis came by and checked on me around 5:30, and I was still not progressing well. My day nurse prepped me for the potential of having a c-section if I continued not to dilate. I discussed with Dr. Davis and she basically said she'd let me labor as long as I wanted as long as both me and the baby were ok. At some point I developed a fever, which caused the baby's heart rate to get high. All I saw were high numbers, and I got really concerned. When Dr. Davis returned around 9 pm (after watching the finale of SYTCD and tucking her girls in), I was very stressed out by the baby's heart rate, and still hadn't progressed much and told her that I was ok with a c-section if that needed to be done (because I was worried that I was hurting the baby). She told me that my fever caused the baby's high heart rate, and that she wasn't worried with it -- we just needed to get my fever down. In the next hour or so, I (finally) progressed from around a 4 or 5 to 8 cm and fully effaced. At some point, I got a little nauseous and asked the nurse for some juice. She brought it to me, then realized I was nauseous and told me not to drink it since I was probably nauseous because I was going through transition (from 8 cm to 10 cm). Lo and behold, she was right and I was at 10 cm. Dr. Davis wanted me to "labor down" but in the next 20ish minutes, I had a lot of pressure in my bottom. There was some concern about the baby not being turned the right way because I was feeling pressure in my tailbone. As it turns out, his head was just a little off center, but facing the right way. At some point, I felt what I thought was the urge to push, so I informed my nurse. She checked me and said that we'd start pushing.

As I recall, I pushed for about 45 minutes, and got all kinds of "atta girls" for good pushing (Do they do that to everyone? I feel like they must...). At some point birth became imminent, and they started doing all the room set-up/prep stuff. I was pretty focused on pushing, but Beau tells me (and I sorta remember) that the transition nurse for Miles wasn't even there when he was delivered. I pushed him out at 11:24 PM, which met Dr. Davis' goal of "before midnight." Since Miles' warmer, etc wasn't ready yet Dr. Davis was just holding him and put him all gooey on my belly when I asked for him. After the nurse took him and cleaned him up, Beau brought him over to me to look at and we discussed names... I decided that he looked like a Miles instead of our other option and thus he was named Miles Andrew. Post baby delivery things happened (placenta, stitching, general clean-up, etc). Apparently my epidural ran out while they were stitching me up... Beau didn't tell me that until days later. Thankfully it takes a while to wear off.

Family came in, talked about how awesome he was, etc. We got into our mother baby room around 2:30, sent Miles to the nursery, took a short nap, my first food (since 7 pm 30 hours before...) arrived and I ate. We slept when we could, Miles got brought in, but wasn't really interested in eating so he went back to the nursery while we attempted to sleep some more.

!!!TMI ALERT!!!

The best way I can describe birth (with an epidural) is like you're taking a HUGE poop. When described that way, it seems way less daunting.

That is all I remember, and I'm glad I wrote it down because that birth amnesia thing already seems to be happening.

Welcome to the world, Miles Andrew Champion!

2011-08-14T06:41:00.000-07:00

Miles joined us after about 16 hours of labor on August 11, 2011. He arrived on the scene at 23:24 (I write it in military time because I like the sequence, not because I'm that engineer-y), weighed 7 lb 15 oz, and measured 20 1/2 inches long. He's not quite the chunker I thought he was going to be, but perfect in every way (including his bodacious cone head complements of being stuck at 3 - 4 cm for most of the day.

It was a long day, but not too painful or unpleasant. We got moved into a mother-baby room around 2:00 AM, and promptly sent Miles to the nursery so that Mom and Dad could get some much needed sleep.

We came home from the hospital yesterday, and have been working on figuring this parenting thing out. Miles is working on learning to sleep at night and not sleep during the day.

Izzy's attempting to help at every opportunity...

Beau-rito, Baby Benny, He-who-hasn't-been-named

2011-08-10T14:40:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow Beau and my life will change. I'm being induced at 5:30 AM. Hopefully everything will be uneventful and our duo will become a trio.

I've been preparing myself for the last 3 weeks to be induced at my doctor's direction. I have gestational diabetes, and a relatively mild case of high blood pressure. I've been off of work and on home rest since 7/22. I don't like to call it bed rest, because that would imply that I was in bed the entire time; something I'm incapable of doing. Beau has been great at meeting my every need, and attempting to keep me calm and relaxed. He has watched horrible TV with me for hours on end, and even some pretty painful movies.

The rest of the world seems to think that I should be/am terrified of how my life is about to change, but I'm really not. Anxious? Sure. Nervous about how much this is actually going to hurt? Of course. But not scared. I've always said that God put me on this earth to be a mother, and tomorrow I get to start that journey.

Sorry for the totally disjointed post. I just felt like I should write something before my baby boy arrives.

Finally...

2011-07-19T10:44:00.000-07:00

At long last we have a functioning kitchen and you have a blog post to read about it. I have uploaded photos to picasa for your viewing pleasure.

Unfortunately, I have not been keeping up with this as well as I had originally planned and that results in a loss of some of the particulars of various hiccups along the way. I will touch on some of them, but if you ever have a specific desire for a more detailed account of anything, let me know. I don't want to bore everyone with every detail.

Well, the countertop install went fairly well. It took the guys several hours to install the counters, but there weren't any major problems. Because we chose to do an undermount sink, the sink had to be installed at the same time as the countertops. It was hooked up (plumbing-wise) the following day. Over the course of the next few days, I got the dishwasher, refrigerator and stove installed. Of course, the range and dishwasher wouldn't just slide into their new home, so that took some extra cussing and finagling, but eventually they were in and happy.

The backsplash has yet to be installed. My original plan was to attempt to tackle it myself, but with the impending arrival of the next generation, I think we'll pay someone to do it. I'm dragging my feet right now because I became tired of spending money and worried about possible financial obligations associated with the family expansion. I am finally relaxing a little and will probably get the ball rolling on that soon. There are some other "punch list" items to which I need to tend. I need to spray a few cabinet doors. I have a couple of sheetrock repairs. Eventually, Jenny wants a new shelf unit built, painted and installed, but she has told me that there's no rush.

There was a bit of kitchen sink fiasco which I don't feel like delving into. The kitchen sink got clogged up, I tried to straighten it out and couldn't. I called a plumber out (see previous posts to get a feel for my love of plumbers). The plumber was friendly enough and not pushy. He got the sink working again, but not before telling me that the cast iron drain pipe has rotted out underneath the slab. It will eventually have to be replaced. This costs north of $2K and will involve breaking up the slab in our dining room under our new tile floors in order to replace the offending section of pipe. He reassured me that this is not uncommon and that he has presonally had to do this to over a dozen homes in my neighborhood because of the cast iron pipes that were used in construction 50 years ago. Awesome.

In an effort to end on a positive note, we are thoroughly enjoying our new kitchen. We are happy with how all of our ideas came together. I have spent the last week and a half working on the new nursery so a blog post and pictures of that will follow shortly. No, really, I mean it this time. I will post again soon. :)

BEFORE

AFTER

Countertops and More

2011-06-23T04:50:00.000-07:00

Our countertops will be installed today. Hopefully everything goes well, and there's a follow-up post this evening with pictures of a nearly complete kitchen. Beau has the applicances scheduled for delivery tomorrow, and the plumber lined up to take care of some small things. After that, all that's left is back splash.

I can't wait to have my kitchen back. A few weeks ago, I was instructed by my doctor to cut-out carbs to help manage my blood sugar, which I've done before, and it's totally managable... with a kitchen. Eating grilled chicken with vegetables from various take-out places around town has gotten old.

A lot of progress has also been made in the soon-to-be nursery. Mom came over last week and helped us move furniture out of it. Beau pulled up the carpet then painted and put down laminate wood floor. Thanks to Miranda for color selection, and Nathan, Michael, and Chris will the flooring help. It was quite nice to leave in the morning for a day at the spa with Miranda and friends and come home to a room with new flooring in it! Beau put trim up in the room this week, and we've been working on filling and caulking it. For obvious reasons, the kitchen has taken priority.

Hopefully pictures will follow soon!!

Getting closer...

2011-06-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

Although the progress isn't visible, it is real. The slabs for our counter tops have arrived in Baton Rouge! Jenny and I went to check them out on Friday and choose how we want the counters to be cut from them. The fabricator was happy, maybe even impressed, with the quality of the slabs. We are now waiting for the fabricator to cut and finish the stone and then install! I'm hoping that we can get them installed next week, but I'm probably being overly optimistic.

Now it's time for a pair of rants and a rave.

I hate plumbers. No, really. I am thoroughly convinced that plumbing is the single biggest rip-off in home renovation. I got an estimate to run the gas line for our stove. There are two different lines that can be tapped into that are easily accessible in our attic and don't require any long or complicated runs. Yes, the line has to be plumbed down the wall. It is not that big of a deal. Guess what the estimate was. Most people have guessed in the $500 range given the tone of my explanation. $1000! That's right, a grand for maybe $200 worth of material and probably 2 hours work. He even readily admitted that this job was pretty straightforward.

We ordered our sink from Amazon. Jenny had a couple of gift cards that she had been awarded through work and their prices were reasonable. We found an enameled cast iron undermount sink that we liked. It shipped through a freight carrier because it was too big to ship via fed-ex, ups, etc. I tracked down the carrier to schedule a delivery (long story - amazon was very helpful). When the sink arrived, I opened it up to inspect it before signing off on the delivery. Good thing I did, the sink was broken in two places. That's special guys, you managed to break a cast iron sink, twice. I sent it back and called Amazon. Amazon said that since I had refused delivery, they could get another on its way immediately. I asked if they could expedite the shipment, but because of the delivery method it wasn't an option. Because they couldn't expedite it, they gave me $75 back (thanks!) and sent me another sink. Lesson learned - Amazon rocks!

We ordered our hood vent from Homeclick.com. It said "in stock" and probably still does on their website. I called customer service because the ship on date came and went. The guy said he would have to contact a vendor and get back to me. (Isn't it in stock?) He didn't get back in touch with me. The following week I call again. "The computer says it's in our warehouse. That means it should ship out tomorrow if it didn't go today. Let me put you on hold while I contact our warehouse." *hold* "Uh, they aren't answering their phone. It probably shipped out today or will tomorrow. Sorry you didn't get contacted after your last call, the computer must have screwed up." Doubtful. Amazon sent me 2 sinks via freight carriers in the time it sent Homeclick to fed-ex me one in-stock item. Customer Service - unsatisfactory. I DO NOT RECOMMEND HOMECLICK.

Being without a kitchen sink and counter tops has been a bit annoying, but hopefully the kitchen will be usable soon! After counter tops, appliances go in and then backsplash and we are done!

That's when work begins on the nursery... :)

I haven't forgotten about this!

2011-05-19T07:46:00.000-07:00

The Kitchen remodel is still putting along. I didn't post for a long time because most of the work that was done was little stuff (like finishing the sheet rock behind the fridge, removing cabinet doors, etc.) that wasn't really interesting. Now, we are finally in the homestretch.

The kitchen was painted a couple of weeks ago and it didn't go swimmingly. I think perhaps my expectations were too high, you be the judge.

When it came to painting the cabinets, I decided to call in an expert for a few reasons. First, I know how long it takes me to paint and I knew that a professional could get the job done more quickly. Second, I wanted the super smooth finish of an airless sprayer. These tools are awesome pieces of equipment that require experience (that I don't have) to operate. Third, by the time I rented all of the tools and masked everything off, it would be worth my time and money just to hire someone.

Expectations: I got a couple of estimates from guys with good reputations. (All of the painting done on my house had been performed by me up to this point so I had to rely on other people's experiences for guidance.) I ended up hiring the less expensive guy because he was more confident that he could get to me in less than 6 weeks. (Apparently the painting business is good right now.) I expected the results to be better than something I could have done myself. I expected a near flawless, glossy, smooth finish. I expected that they would do all of the necessary prep work (which I had pretty much spelled out when the estimates were written). I expected the job to take about 3 days (less than 8-hour days) of work.

In order to avoid going into every detail, they didn't prep nearly as thoroughly as I do, used equipment that was in need of repair and consequently had to basically start all over. They had to sand through the paint, primer and previous finish to get down to bare wood in many spots because they hadn't prepared the surface properly. The work took over a week to get finished because of all of the extra work that had to be done. The cabinets didn't come out as well as I had hoped. I am now having to come behind and touch up (something I was really hoping to avoid.)

Things the painter did right: he was good about staying in touch with me and communicating his plan. He never ducked my phone calls and was professional about everything. In the end he knocked $100 off of his original estimate because he was disappointed in how the job went. I'm pretty sure he ended up losing money on the job as a result.

Is this a case of if you want the job done right, do it yourself? Should I have used a different painter? Should my expectations have been less lofty? The short of it is that I have been mulling this over for a while and I still don't know. Everybody has a bad day, I know that. This guy didn't react badly when things didn't go his way, which is something that many contractors do. He lowered the price in the end because he knew that he and I were both disappointed in the job.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that he also painted the sheet rock I had just finished, the trim I had just installed, the pocket door to the laundry room and the sheetrock on the bar/peninsula; all things that were not included in the estimate. Also, don't get me wrong, the pictures will look good. The flaws are relatively small but numerous and noticeable close up.

By the way, I'm better at finishing sheet rock that I thought. It did take me considerably longer than it would a professional, though.

Don't forget to check out the pictures on Picasa.

Tile!

2011-03-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

Well, after one small headache, the tile is being finished up. We ran short on tile yesterday which prevented them from being able to lay all of the tile in one day which is pretty impressive. Since the tile was not something the flooring supply had in stock, I was afraid that we would have to wait until next week to get the two boxes (12 tiles) we needed to finish. Thankfully, the salesman at Prosource was able to track down a distributor in town who had some on hand. After being told that they didn't have any from the same lot as ours, it turned out that they did and we were back in business.

The tile masons are finishing up the grout right now and should (I think) be done by lunchtime. Yay! I can't express how happy I am to be done with the broken, peeling vinyl floor. It was disgusting, ugly and a tripping hazard. Hopefully I can get some painters out here next week to give me a quote on painting the cabinets and get the cabinet guy back out here to measure for doors. Let's keep some momentum going!

Incidentally, I also had a small roofing repair which I was able to get done on Tuesday. Some of the shingles on our ridge vent were damaged in a recent storm. I probably wouldn't have noticed it if Jenny hadn't pointed it out. Twenty bucks in materials and about 45 minutes or so of work to get it fixed. Not too shabby.

Pictures of the new floor to come soon.

Cabinets are installed!

2011-03-16T06:49:00.000-07:00

Well, the cabinet problem has been resolved and all three of the cabinet units we are adding have been installed. Yay! I met the cabinet man on Sunday to pick them up. I could not fit all three of them in the bed of my truck, but since we met here in town I brought along the trailer that I borrowed to transport the tile... with the tile on it. Sure hauling around an extra 1500 or so lbs. doesn't seem like the best idea, but it worked out okay.

Jenny helped me install the cabinets on Monday evening. Don't worry! She didn't lift anything heavy or strain in any way. She helped make sure that everything was aligned and made sure that nothing fell on my head. No major problems to report with the install. We are now better able to envision how our kitchen will work when we are finished and we are pleased.

The tile man is here right now prepping the slab for the tile installation which will begin tomorrow. The vinyl flooring was installed using this nasty black adhesive to which other adhesives (like thin set, the stuff used to set tile) won't bond. To rectify this they are using something called uniflex which will serve as the meat in a glue sandwich. They claim that this stuff will adhere to anything and anything will adhere to it. I will update again when the tile is complete!

First major delay...

2011-03-09T11:43:00.000-08:00

Well, I guess it was bound to happen, we have hit our first setback. Sure, we have had little bumps here and there, but this is a guaranteed, one-week set back.

When you are reflooring the spine of your ranch-style home, there are lots of things that you have to prepare for. We will have to spend a couple of nights out of the house so that the tile can set. We can't stay here because we wouldn't be able to get to a bathroom. One of the other little things is that our washer and dryer have to be moved. In preparation for this task, I did a massive amount of laundry yesterday so that anything we could possibly need would be clean and available. There were a few other things to do before calling the tile mason to get him out here. One of these tasks was installing a lower cabinet that we have had for a couple of weeks now. When I went to set it in place, it was a half inch too short. The cabinet guy didn't account for the overhang of the Formica (yes, it is technically a proper name) countertop when he measured the cabinets. Now I have to get it back to him so that he can take the front face apart and make two new stiles and a new bottom rail. Although this will probably not take more than an hour or two, it is not his main line of work, and I have to get it to Ponchatoula via Plaquemine (he's a coworker of Jenny). I realized the mistake yesterday, will get the cabinet to him tomorrow, he will fix it over the weekend and get it back to Jenny on Monday. This means the earliest possible day to start the tile is next Tuesday.

I guess I have to do another round of laundry. Oh well.

In another matter, I also realized that installing the cabinet would cover up the receptacle that was previously used for the refrigerator. After brainstorming a bit with Nathan over the phone, we realized that the refrigerator was probably on a dedicated circuit and that I could use that wiring to install two new receptacles in the backsplash on that wall. I am really glad that this thought occurred to us. That wall would have had no receptacles if it wasn't for that epiphany. I also used the 220-volt circuit that previously powered the oven to create a 110-volt outlet for the new refrigerator, thus creating a new dedicated circuit to power the new refrigerator. It blows my mind that so far Beau the electrician has fared better than Beau the plumber, but c'est la vie.

In other news, Jenny and I went appliance shopping (success) and countertop shopping (abysmal failure) on Monday. Jenny gets a discount on Whirlpool family appliances through work, and we managed to get a locally-owned appliance store (which I have worked with in the past) to give us very competitive prices. We will probably end up purchasing the appliances through the local guys because they have a good service department, the sales people have been very nice and helpful, and it never hurts to support a local business, right? Here's our dilemma: we are looking at two gas slide-in ranges. They are both good units that retail around the same price point. The one that we both really like is the slightly more expensive one (obviously because otherwise there would be no dilemma). The slightly less expensive one we can purchase for around $1500; it retails for $2049. The one we really like is $2199 and there is no haggling or deal-making to be done. The manufacturer forces its retailers to sell it for the price they set. This means it is the same price everywhere (even on the internet). So, if it were a matter of $150, it would be no contest. $700 on the other hand, is a pretty nice chunk of change. Advice/Donations are welcome.

Progress is being made

2011-03-07T08:50:00.000-08:00

Sorry for two posts in one day, but they are pretty unrelated and occurred days apart but didn't get blogged about because things have been a little hectic.

Sunday afternoon Nathan and I set about modifying the cabinets to suit our new kitchen plan. We will be installing a slide-in range where the cooktop previously resided. In order to make this happen, we needed to cut the 30" hole in the cabinets where the range will go and then remodel the remaining cabinets on either side.

I removed the cooktop right before Nathan arrived. First, we set about removing some of the Formica countertop. Nathan hates Formica. I only included this because I think this fact came up about 2 dozen times. It was removed pretty much without incident.

The next step was to cut the cabinets. We brainstormed a little bit and then came up with a system/jig to promote straight cutting and clean edges for our cuts. The cuts were made with a circular saw, which worked well except that you can't cut all the way to the floor with a circular saw. The front edge of the blade is recessed a few inches short of the front of the tool.

As we had anticipated this problem, I borrowed a handy tool from Mr. James to help us out. If you are into home improvement or tools in general, one of the new tools to hit the market is these little oscillating multi-tools. You'll see commercials where they use them for cutting, scraping, sanding, etc. The often have a little triangle-shaped sanding pad or other attachment affixed to the front. This is one of those tools that is a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. I dare say that there is a better sanding tool, scraping tool, and cutting tool out there, but this little guy is mighty handy. He allowed us to cut pretty much whatever we wanted, wherever we wanted. We used him to cut a lot of parts that were hard to get to.

We then set about building the end pieces for the new cabinets. We used a table saw that I had been given a while back but never really used. The next part is really a bit embarrassing. The saw was not cutting very well and creating a bunch of smoke. Twenty minutes or so into using it, Jenny rolls up and says: "Um, is the blade on backwards?" Yes, yes it was. It is really annoying when engineers do that. 90% of the time they make the job harder than it has to be, ask 1400 questions and provide little to no help. This time, Jenny was absolutely right and we hadn't even considered that particular source of our troubles. TO OUR CREDIT, the blade was installed backwards when it was given to me.

After flipping the blade around, the saw worked much better and without smoking us out from the burning plywood. Ugh.

Anyway, after an hour or so of ripping down plywood on the table saw, we had the sides and stiles cut for the cabinet. I have to finish nailing it all together since the hardware store was closed by the time we got to that step. All in all, it was a very productive day and Nathan was once again quite helpful.

I uploaded a few new pictures to the Kitchen Remodel album on picasa (link on the right.)

I hate plumbing

2011-03-07T08:25:00.000-08:00

I will explain the photo above in just a minute, but first a little bit about plumbing. There is a saying in construction: "There are only two things to know about plumbing: sh!t rolls downhill and payday's Friday." This is not far from the truth. Plumbing is very simple and uncomplicated. It is, however, a royal pain in the butt. As I was attempting to get some work done in the kitchen (removing the dishwasher in this instance) I realized there was water dripping from the hot water connection under my sink. Because there is not a shut-off installed, I figured I would go ahead and kill two birds with one stone. A shut off is that little knob that you will probably find against the wall underneath every toilet, sink, washing machine, etc. in your house. A brilliant idea, this is intended to allow you to shut off the water supply to that fixture without having to turn the water off to the whole house. This was not part of the building code in 1962. (Was there even a building code in 1962?)

Unfortunately, due to the simplicity of the basic nature of plumbing, every joe blow handyman thinks that he can tackle any plumbing problem. Apparently this was the case when it comes to the hot water supply to my kitchen sink and disposal. The reason it was leaking is because the two fittings you see on either end of that T connector above are for natural gas. As you might guess, natural gas and water have some slightly different properties. Genius.

Having done one previous plumbing project in my house, the whole thing was galvanized pipe which is pretty helpful. I say this because there are no special tools or knowledge required to work with galvanized pipe. Since I couldn't see what was in the wall, I assumed that it was all galvanized pipe. It wasn't. I tried in vain to disconnect that T connector in any way that I could. Note: underneath the kitchen sink is not the most comfortable place to work. Eventually, I just tried to turn the whole thing. The copper elbow you see on the left was happy to let go and the whole thing came out. This is because copper is very soft and doesn't screw together.

After a few unhappy words, Jenny showed up and we brainstormed a bit. The most common way to connect copper pipes is by soldering them together. This is the third thing that you need to know to be a plumber. It is not all that difficult to learn, but it does require a blow torch. There are some downsides to this. When you are working inside a wooden cabinet, most things around you do not respond well to a high temperature flame. I decided to go to the hardware store and purchase a brass compression fitting, the other way to attach copper pipe.

Long story short, by the next day I had the thing sorted out and the hot water turned back on. We still don't have hot water on the kitchen sink because the hardware store was out of the cap I needed to close off the dishwasher connection and I haven't bothered to find another one.

Here is why I hate plumbing: there is nothing difficult conceptually about plumbing, but it tends to be in the most awkward spaces to work, it never goes quite as you hope, you NEVER know what is behind a wall, and most importantly plumbers cost a fortune! I despise this because there really is nothing particularly difficult about plumbing!

Kitchen Remodel Under Way!!!

2011-03-02T08:42:00.000-08:00

All right, folks, the kitchen remodel has officially begun! Make sure to check out the photos by clicking the link on the right-hand side.

Well, Jenny and I ordered the tile last Thursday and began our grand adventure into kitchen rehab. Over the weekend we packed up all of our kitchen items setting aside what we considered the bare essentials to get us by until the project is done. I will be setting up a temporary kitchen in the front room in the near future.

On to the project -- There is a good bit of work for me to do before the tile can be laid. Our cabinet guy delivered our new lower cabinet (a three-drawer piece) that will go where the refrigerator was. We needed this to get started because the tile will be laid around it. I spent yesterday (Tuesday) ripping out cabinetry. As with any renovation, there are always some small (or large) unexpected hurdles. Since I wasn't around in 1962, I kind of assumed (before we purchased the house) that cabinets were built then as they are now. Not so! Most (read: all that I know of) modern custom cabinets are built modularly. That means that each unit is assembled in a shop, transported to the house and then installed and attached to one another in place. In the 1960's many cabinets were built on site, in-place. What this means to me is that I can't just unscrew the cabinets and carry them to the curb. They are all attached to each other with lots of 2" nails. All in all, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and I was pleased with my progress yesterday.

I still have some kitchen demo to do, but this stuff will be more tedious. Yesterday mostly consisted of removing stuff that we were throwing away. The next step is to perform surgery on the cabinets to remove what we don't want and preserve what we do want. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do this, but I have a few ideas. I will be making a trip to Lowe's today to pick up some supplies and seek some ideas.

The next step prior to tile installation is removal of the old vinyl plank flooring. At first thought this might seem an easy task. Hell, half of it is coming up already. Unfortunately, I must remove the base trim in the hallway and closets in order to pull up the floor in there. Let's also not make light of the fact that we are talking about over 500 ft² of flooring including three closets. Yay. Also, the glue that was used to adhere this stuff is pretty nasty. The tile guy will take care of the glue as long as I remove the flooring. To keep from getting this stuff all over the bottom of our shoes and into other areas of the house, I will put down some type of floor protector in the meantime.

There are about 2 dozen more steps in this process and I won't bore you with all of the details yet. I hope to keep up the blog on a daily (read, days I work on the project, not every day) basis.

As a side note, one of the camellias is dying. The biggest one has struggled since being transplanted and is in dire shape. On the other hand, the other two seem to be doing very well. I will let you know what happens.

NEW ADDITION!

2011-02-25T10:32:00.000-08:00

NEW ADDITION

As most know, Beau and I are expecting our first child in August. We are both very excited, and in typical Jenny-fashion, I’m thinking about all the things that need to get done before the little one arrives. Of course normal baby preparation isn’t good enough, and being the over-achievers that we are, we’ve decided to over-haul the kitchen too. This post will be long, so I’ve split it into “Baby Thoughts” and “Kitchen Plans.”

BABY THOUGHTS:
Beau and I found out we were pregnant on Christmas Eve 2010. Appropriate, I guess, since 5 years prior we had decided to start our family by getting engaged. I find it funny that I didn’t even consider I could be pregnant until a girl-friend accused me of messing with her cycle. Oops… I guess her body knew before anyone else.

Frankie has dubbed the baby “Beau-rito” and our friends have been very helpful with name suggestions. We appreciate them all and they’ll go onto the list once I can convince Beau to discuss names. He says we have to wait until we know whether it’s a boy or girl, which will be the end of March.

We’re both very excited, and I’ve had a very easy first trimester. I hope it continues as nicely as it started. I’m constantly worried, because I don’t feel “pregnant” and haven’t had any of the less-desirable side effects (no morning sickness… heck yeah!). Beau explains it best by saying that I “think I’m doing this wrong.”

There have been requests to see the 1st sonogram (10 weeks) and I tried to scan it in at work, but failed. I guess eventually I’ll do the old-school "picture of a picture" to put it up. I’m currently at 15 weeks, and the baby is the size of a navel orange. There are conflicting reports on other sites that it’s the size of an apple, so decide what you will.

Here’s a “your baby is the size of (Insert Fruit here)!” ticker. Maybe this HTML will work...

That's all the baby thoughts I have for now. On to more fun, immediate things... THE KITCHEN!

KITCHEN PLANS:
Ever since we saw our house for the first time, we've had plans to redo the kitchen. Everything functioned pretty well, but it wasn't pretty (By 2000's standards). I'm glad we lived in the kitchen for 3 years before re-doing it. It helps you understand what you like and what you hate. The impetus for starting now is the flooring (and the fact that we have enough money saved). The existing flooring is vinyl/wood laminate combo that's glued down. I'm sure when it was installed it was beautiful, but over the years, things have leaked under the flooring, causing it to peel and come off. It's pretty ugly and grosses me out a little.

Yesterday, we ordered our new, porcelain 18" x 18" tile and it should be arriving sometime next week. Because we didn't want to be out of our kitchen for longer than necessary, we haven't done anything to prep for it, and will have a whirlwind weekend packing and maybe doing some cabinet modification. I'll have to say good-by to my avocado green, 1972 fridge, but the environment (and my electric bill) will thank me. We're replacing it with a Kitchen-Aid french-door stainless model.

High level plan is: All new appliances, move the fridge to where the in-wall oven currently is. Install a slide-in gas range where the cook-top is. Install new cabinets with lower pot drawers where fridge currently is. Replace cabinet doors, paint cabinets. The furdown was removed in Gustav recovery. Install a hood (OMG! I haven't had a hood since we moved in because we felt it would be easier to just throw-away the old hood than to clean it. It was disgusting.). Install some sort of tile back-splash. New solid-surface countertops (we want soapstone, but may end up with a man-made product). 18" x 18" porcelain tile floor, set in diamond pattern. Remove the mini-wall between the sink and the bar.
I think that's it. There are some side projects (a new pantry, bookshelves where the phone jack is) that may or may not happen.

Contrary to the blog title, Beau will not be doing everything. He and I both recognize what our skill sets are and aren't, and will probably be contracting out some of the work. Hopefully we'll keep the blog updated since we'll have an active project happening.

Project Camellia

2010-12-12T15:44:00.000-08:00

You thought I had forgotten about this, didn't you? Well, I kinda did. I didn't forget about the blog per say, but I haven't really done much work on the house recently. The next big project planned for the house is the renovation of the kitchen. As this is easily one of the most expensive projects we plan on tackling, we are currently trying to save up enough money to be able to complete the project once started. Donations are welcome!

On to the task at hand. Here's the background:

Jenny and I really like these camellias and, based on a conversation we had with the ladies from the Camellia Society (ha ha, we're old), we believe that ours are particularly large and special. We were told that the way to go about moving them was to root prune (stick a shovel a foot in the ground all the way around them) in late spring and then transplant in October/November. The reason that we wanted to move them was so we could open up the area outside of our back door and eventually put in a deck or patio.

Jenny spoke with one of her coworkers who tends to own some random pieces of equipment and he said that while he did not own one, he was planning to rent one to do some work on his property. He told Jenny that he would be more than happy to bring it over to our house to help us out.

December rolled around and he has not gotten around to his project, but we really needed to do this now to avoid waiting another year. Our December calender has gotten pretty full by this point so we need to do it this weekend. I spoke to Nathan on Friday night and asked if he would be able to help. He said he could, so I spent Saturday morning pricing compact or mini excavators.

Lo and behold no equipment rental outfits are open on Saturday. AAA Rentall had one, but it was $195 for the day (Saturday afternoon until 9 AM Sunday morning) and they charge $50 to rent a trailer to haul it on. My experience with AAA is that they have a large selection of equipment in rough shape. Having seen the excavator they rent on a previous occasion, I sought other viable options. I called a place, Volvo Rents, in Geismar. I only called because their web page listed their hours as 7-5 with no days listed. I call and the number transfers to a cell phone. Not wanting to bother someone with my small job on their day off, I hung up without leaving a message. Long story short, the lady on call returned my call, opened up the place for me, and rented me a much, much nicer excavator with trailer for around $200. I will call them first next time.

Nathan and I tried to get some work done yesterday, but it kept raining and we didn't get much done. We started fresh this morning around 9. It probably took us about 2 hours (maybe longer) to transplant the first one. We didn't really know what we were doing and that was part of the problem. I think we transplanted the second one in about 30 minutes. The third one was the largest and by far heaviest of the group. It probably took as much effort to dig it up as it did to get it standing up straight in its new home. That kind of sucked. A lot.

Nathan did a fantastic job and was an invaluable help. I will probably buy him a thank you gift for this one. He is much better at operating equipment than I am, though I did a lot better than I thought I would. When my back wore out, he did the manual labor and let me work the machine. God bless him for that. For the record, there was little to no swearing and we never fought with each other. We make a really could pair for projects like this, sometimes.

I don't know when I will post again as we are still trying to save up for the kitchen. Hopefully that project will start soon. I hope to post several times as the project gets underway. I hope you enjoyed this post and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Check out the Picasa album as there are a few pictures.

2009-07-02T10:15:00.000-07:00

Well, Beau did complete (most) of his lofty goals from the last post. We got the house put back together just in time for Monique's shower. It's amazing how effective a deadline can be. The shower was really nice, and everything went perfectly. Eventually there will be pictures, but we haven't gotten around to it yet (maybe I need a deadline for that too...). The den furniture isn't exactly where we'd like it, but there's time to fix that. Maybe one day, we'll even buy some furniture of our own!

We weren't able to get the sod laid, and it's probably too hot now to do it, so that will have to wait until late summer. Next on the spending list is to get some trees taken down. There are 2 or 3 that give us concern, and for my peace of mind, I need them gone before the middle of August.

Beau and I are headed to H-town for the 4th, and can't wait to see all of his family. I'm sure it will be a calm and relaxing weekend.

Before and ... current?

2009-05-18T19:30:00.000-07:00

So I am little late for my monthly posting...

We had a number of busy weekends all in a row, but things seem to be settling down a little bit (though not much). In the midst of life, we have gotten some work done. As seems to be the case with home remodel, I don't have anything completely finished, but some stuff is substantially under way.

The painting is getting toward a finishing point and I pretty darn happy with how things are turning out. I'm trying to get it done, but I've been having some trouble motivating myself. I'm resolved to get it done. We will be hosting a baby shower here on June 19th and my (lofty) goal is this: finish painting, get the wood floor installed in the den, get the shoe installed, repair the floor in the kitchen/dining room/hall, and get the back yard graded and sodded. I don't think it is all going to happen, but I'm going to try.

Nathan and I succeeded in getting the hardest and probably the most expensive part of the first stage of the backyard renovation done on Sunday in about an hour and a half. It is a pretty entertaining story, but I have been advised not to put it into writing. You should ask me about it the next time you see/talk to me. Anyway, the rough grading work is done.

I am going straight over to the photo sight to upload some before and after pics. I will do my best to caption them before I crash tonight. Enjoy!

I have been remiss

2009-03-17T19:26:00.000-07:00

I have officially been scolded for not updating the blog. Honestly, I kinda forgot about it a little bit. I know, I'm a horrible person. The trim was installed quickly and expertly. It took less than two days to get it all done. I have been trying to get it painted ever since. So, for the details...

In the days just before the trim carpenter is to come and install everything, Jenny decided that she didn't like my plans for the shelving unit. We had to go to Lowe's and Home Depot in search of some sort of "decorative" trim with which to trim the front of the shelves. I was rather perturbed, but. as usually happens with these things, Jenny was right. She decided on base cap and it looks a lot better than what I was going to do. If it counts for anything, I did a good job with the selection of all of the other trim.

There's been a whole bunch of puttying, caulking and some painting going on. The good news it that what I have painted so far looks pretty darn good. I'm working with oil-based paint on the trim. It's kind of a pain to work with and Al Gore has been leaving me nasty phone messages, but it looks really good when all is said and done. I've been using an additive called Penetrol which helps eliminate brush strokes. My painter turned me onto a while back. They make one for latex, but he said it's not nearly as effective.

A good hint: do you have any paint brushes that have stiffened up? Do you hate how you can never get a roller all the way clean? Well, I have and I do. I was running low on paint thinner and was at Lowe's picking up various things. I'm staring at the section with the paint thinner in it and I spy something in an identical metal can labelled "brush cleaner". My first thought is: paint thinner in a different, more expensive can? It says it is intended to clean brushes and rollers that have been used with latex or oil-based paints. Hmm... not paint thinner... So I figure, what the hell. It it saves one brush it pays for itself. This stuff is pretty amazing. I'm buying a gallon the next time I go. I still have no idea what it is, but it's worth it.

Jenny and I have decided on a floor for the den, I think. When we went to Carla and Charles' house right after the hurricane, we saw the wood flooring that Charles installed and Jenny really liked it. It was a wide-plank, hand-scraped wood floor. That's what we're going to do. I was thinking of trying to install it myself, but Nathan's dad has a good friend who is willing to do it for me for 1.25/ft. I can't argue with that. I'm trying to get the dining room/kitchen finished up first so that we can move furniture back in, but then I'm going to finish up the painting in the den so that I can get the floor installed. He has an opening in mid-April, so that's my goal.

One final anecdote... two of my friends, Chris and Dustin, are moving into my grandmother's currently vacant house. There is some painting to be done and when mom and dad asked them what color they wanted the walls, they responded "the same color as Beau and Jenny's walls." I take that as a complement :)

Sheetrock!

2009-02-02T19:55:00.000-08:00

The sheetrock is up! It has been hanged (hung?), finished, textured, and almost all of it is primed. I had the primer tinted so it's beginning to look like a finished product. I would post pictures, but I don't know where the camera is at the moment.

The whole process was interesting. The sheetrock hanger was great. I was truly impressed. They were quick, efficient, professional and they did a good job. For those who don't know, these are qualities rare to sheetrock contractors. The sheetrock finisher did good work. That's all that can be said for him. He showed up 10 hours late the first day (no lie). He was also drunk. After an ultimatum he showed up the next day on time and sober. From that point on, things went pretty smoothly. I have been trying to get everything primed, but 1600 square feet of sheet is a bunch. I have primed the walls and some of the ceiling. Hopefully I can finish priming tomorrow and get painting.

Jenny and I have been running non-stop since Christmas. Every weekend has been completely booked. We are finally through all of it (not that it wasn't enjoyable) and have some time to get some work done. We have plenty of painting to do, then trim, then more painting, then floor! Then we take a break.

MR. CHAMPION, TEAR DOWN THAT WALL!!

2009-01-19T07:54:00.000-08:00

oh my goodness. The temporary wall between the kitchen and the den is officially gone. I forgot how big my house is. Beau finished up most of the insulation in the den this weekend, and with the help of some fantastic friends (Frankie, Jim, Dustin, Kristen and Miranda) the paneling has been demo'ed. Sheet rock is supposed to be delivered today (Monday) and the craftsmen should start work tomorrow. I'm so excited. With the combination of no more visqueen in my house, and no visible studs (except for Beau. ha.) it's going to feel like a real house!!!!

We're taking out the furdown above the kitchen cabinets at the same time too, so our kitchen may actually look a little updated. I'm so excited to have my house back in one piece. It's hard to describe. (This does a pretty good job). (and makes me realize that I need to clean my camera lens.)

I'm so appreciative of all of Beau's hard work through all of this.

Now some more fun starts -- who wants to come paint?!

Jenny's Inaugural Post!

2008-12-09T07:10:00.000-08:00

So, this is completely not house related, but I figured if you cared enough about our house, you'd care about my job too.

Dow announced yesterday that they will be cutting 5000 company jobs and 6000 contractor jobs beginning in 1Q09. They will also be shutting down a number of plants. I thankfully, don't fall into any of those categories. To all of the Vicknairs out there -- it's ok, you can stop your stomach from being in knots and allow your food to begin digesting again.

Thank you for your time. That is all.

Brick work

2008-11-11T18:53:00.000-08:00

The brick repairs on the den are complete! I am pretty stoked about this. It's the first work to be completed since the check arrived. I have paid off everybody I owed money and it feels good. I called the brick mason on Wednesday. He came on Thursday to see what needed to be done and give me an estimate. He arrived Friday morning and was done Friday afternoon. I was impressed by the prompt service.

The brick mason is the contractor that we use at work. He told me that he has been laying bricks for 50 years, but hadn't laid brick like ours since he was an apprentice. He was able to use the brick that was removed along with some bricks that were in a pile in the back yard. Luckily he was able to do the job with the bricks we had. I'm not sure what we would have done if we hadn't had enough. I think I got a good price on the labor and they cleaned the mortar off of the brick and picked up after themselves. I hope to post some pictures of the progress soon. I'll create a short post when I do so that you all know to check.

A check arrived!

2008-11-05T18:11:00.000-08:00

After much anxiety, the first check has arrived from CitiMortgage! The pleasant surprise is that it was for two thirds of the amount. When I called last wednesday hoping to ascertain a FedEx tracking number on my check, I was informed that there was a hold on the payment because they hadn't received certain documents. I became irate because in the more than half dozen calls I have had with Citi, no one ever mentioned these documents to me. After chewing out a supervisor I was told that I could fax the documents to them that day and they would issue a check within 5-7 business days. 5-7 more days!!! I yelled some more then went to mom and dad's to fax it to them. When I called to confirm the fax I spoke with a guy named Steve Jennings. He is the only person I will talk to now. He was helpful and knowledgeable.

So it had occurred to me after Steve clarified some things to me there is a problem. The way that insurance works it that they give you the Actual Cash Value (ACV) of damaged property. Once the repairs are "substantially under way," they then issue a check for the Replacement Cost. Citimortgage doesn't release the final third of the amount (ACV) until the repairs are 95% complete. It escapes my understanding that they think I can complete 95% of the repairs with only 2/3 of the ACV which is about 2/3 of the replacement cost. To give you an example, State Farm only gave me about $3500 to replace the roof. It will cost about $10,000 to replace. Citimortgage things I can get the job done with $2300?!?

Well, the fight is long from over, but I've finally won the first battle. It's refreshing to know that I have at least a chance of getting the money I need. I've got a price to put vinyl on the soffit and that contractor is ready to start. I talked to the brick mason today and he is coming tomorrow to give me an estimate and let me know what materials (how much mortar and sand) I need to purchase. He sounded like he can get to work quickly. The roofer is ready and willing to start whenever I give him the word. It's a bit frustrating to have all of these guys chomping at the bit and not being able to let them all start working. The brick should be relatively inexpensive so we'll go ahead and get that done.

Hopefully the updates will come fast and furious from here on out, but I can't say I'm confident.

Citi Mortgage Sucks

2008-10-26T18:06:00.000-07:00

So I have obviously been EXTREMELY remiss in keeping up with the blog. I sincerely apologize. Jenny and I have been stressing out lately and I haven't gotten around to it. Let's dive in...

So State Farm was by no means rapid in processing our claim and issuing us a check, but they weren't bad either. Unfortunately, for some reason that I still don't understand, Citi thought we had Farmer's insurance and State Farm thought our mortgage was with Nationwide. This led to Citi thinking our insurance policy had been cancelled and State Farm issuing us a check with the wrong mortgage company listed as a payee. It took me about a week to get the correct check. Once I did I was instructed that in order to receive the funds, we would have to endorse the check and mail it to Citi. They would then issue us 1/3 of the funds. After completing 1/3 of the repairs (whatever that means) we should call them back. They will send out an inspector to verify that we have completed 1/3 of the repairs. If he agrees, we will be issued the second third of the check. We then do it all over again. In order to obtain the final 1/3 we need to complete 95% of the repairs (I think), turn in receipts (which I think is absolute bullshit), and then they will release the rest.

Citi Mortgage sucks. I am really considering refinancing as soon as that is a viable option. This is absolutely ridiculous. *Deep Breath* I mailed the check to them on 13 Oct. I used registered mail for obvious reasons. The postcard confirmation I got back said it arrived on the 20th. I called to verify this. "We received your check on the 22nd." Really? I'm pretty sure you didn't. They deposited the check. Now they are waiting for it to clear. I should have a check in my hands by the end of this week. Alright. "Can I go ahead and request my first inspection?" "Absolutely. An inspector will contact you within 5 business days to set up an appointment?" Apparently the inspection process moves as quickly as the processing office. Awesome. Inspector calls me a few days later. "I have an opening next tuesday at 1:30 pm." "Um, do you have anything that isn't in the middle of weekday?" "Well, I live in central, so I try not to schedule appointments across town first thing in the morning." "Try living in the city, dipshit. Oh, and not being so lazy" (I didn't actually say this, but I think he might have gotten the message because he's coming at 8)

I'm sorry to rant about this, but it pisses me off. My house was damaged on 1 September and I haven't gotten a dime to help rebuild. I pay my mortgage on time every month. I am current on my insurance. I don't think that it's too much to ask for these people to get me some aid in less than 2 months!

We have done some work. The trees were removed from our house and eventually from our curb. Our yard (front and back) were pretty damaged by this whole process. On 13 October the framing carpenters arrived. After consultation we decided to remove everything above the walls: every joist, rafter, and sheet of decking. Jenny and I needed a vacation so we went to Gulf Shores for the rest of the week. It was great.

When we came back the framing was essentially done. The had to finish up the soffit and fascia which they did on Monday. Because of the damage done by the tree we had to replace the one (yes one) window in the den. We decided not to go with the same setup. I was able to procure 3 Jeld-Wen Vinyl windows (3' x 5'6") for a VERY good price. They look so much better. That's one nice thing we couldn't have done if it weren't for Gustav. Thanks, I guess.

Work has since come to a grinding halt. We are out of money. (Not in the food stamp way, but in the "I'm not using up all of my liquid assets" kind of way.) I owe people money (which I hate!) For the most part they are being very understanding that I am being hosed by the mortgage company, but I still hate it. The sad part is that most of the first check is going to be to pay off people. We really can't do much until we get the second third. I think that roofing is going to eat up the entire second check, so we won't be able to get much done until we get the third check. We'll see. It could definitely be worse. Two of our friends (a couple that have gotten married since Jenny and I did) are living with his parents, his sister, her 3 kids and a total of 3 dogs. Yikes! I love my family, but I don't think we could do that.

I'll try to post again soon (as work progresses). I sincerely hope that my next post won't be so bitter. I am very excited that I will (probably) get to see my siblings in the coming weekends. Hopefully they can make it the house since they haven't seen it yet! I am disappointed that they will see in this shape, but oh well. Hope everything is going well for everyone else. Keep your chins up!

¡No me Gustav!

2008-09-05T05:22:00.001-07:00

So I'm assuming anyone who follows this thing has probably already been informed through facebook or phone trees that we took some damage. The house will endure, but unfortunately some of the paneling was damaged beyond repair. One huge tree (outside of my property line) came down taking out two of my trees on the way to land in one big group on the house. For the record, it was one enormous elm (in the words of the tree guy) and two hackberry trees (yeah, I'd never heard of them either).

The roof, overhang, and one exterior wall took some pretty extensive damage. The den window is broken and the lentil is destroyed. The roof took some pretty severe damage. There are some holes in the roof over the dining room as well and a pretty significant amount of water came through the ceiling above the french doors. The house did not flood and all was not lost. The tree was removed late yesterday evening and hopefully this weekend I will have contractors look at it to begin repairs.

It appears that we won't have power for a while. Entergy released a schedule of when different neighborhoods can expect power back. Mine wasn't on it. None of the neighborhoods around me were on it. Yay. Jenny and I may travel to Lafayette to purchase supplies today and to experience a bit of normalcy: to get gas without a line, to grocery shop in the air conditioning, eat a hot meal in a nice, cool restaurant, etc.

I want to mention a few people here who have been great through this whole ordeal. Michael and Sarah top the list. They sheltered us through the storm, fed us dinner, gave us a place to stay and have been caring for Izzy ever since. Chris has come a number of times to help us clean up/work on the damage. He gave us a nice air conditioned office to sleep in for a night and fed us dinner. David and Terry Hebert (my bosses) have allowed us and some friends the use of the office to eat sleep, etc. while we are without power and until I can get the house livable. Carmen has let us shower in her condo and let us do some much needed laundry. I also want to thank Brooke and Nathan for coming to help clean up my mess after spending hours at Nathan's parents' house cleaning up their mess. It's cliche, but it's true. You really how many friends you have when something bad happens.

I'll try to keep this thing updated as best I can. Cell phones are working a little bit better every day, so if anyone needs to get in touch, you probably can. Take care.

Fence is done! (Almost...)

2008-08-21T11:30:00.000-07:00

Well, technically the fence is finished and the gates aren't, but anyway...

Michael, Nathan, and Chris came over on Saturday and helped me get the runners (2x4s) cut and nailed up. Jenny and I had marked the posts earlier in the week. With a borrowed framing nailer and staple gun (from Mark) things went pretty darn well. The rain dampened our spirits a bit, but it cleared off and we were able to resume.

We started putting up the pickets, but had to cut it short so that Jenny and I could get cleaned up for David Smith's wedding in Opelousas. We had a good time at the wedding. It turns out we knew about a half dozen people there (other than the groom and his family). I have to bitch about the 6 oz. cups of beer that they served, but I just resorted to getting 2+ at a time. David told me he was a big fan of the blog (who knew we had fans?) and when he introduced me to his wife she knew who I was. Crazy. Congratulations to David and Emily (I hope you read this), I wish you the best!

Anyhow, I woke Nathan up on Sunday and he came over and we rocked and rolled on the pickets and got the rest of the fence done (except for the areas where gates are going). I continued to work on the fence this week to hammer out some odds and ends. I had to purchase some 8' pickets for one area of the fence that traversed a particular low portion of the yard. I cut them to fit and stapled them in place. Hopefully Mark and I can get together this weekend to get the gates finished up. If he doesn't show, I'll probably have to resort to doing them myself.

I was able to get the yard to the point that Izzy can roam freely now. I had some trellis laying around that I tacked up where one of the gates will go. The back corner of the yard is temporarily fenced off because their is a pile of bricks and other assorted "stuff" back there that I am going to have to pick through before Izzy gets back there. Pictures to follow as soon as I take them and upload them. :)

This will probably take a while...

2008-08-03T20:12:00.000-07:00

The fence posts are all set!

That said, I owe many people a significant debt of gratitude. First and foremost Chris Broussard. He and I both completely physically exhausted ourselves yesterday. By this I mean we both collapsed. The most exhausted I have ever been. I got light-headed an hour and a half before we stopped. Then we both got up and started again today. Thank you Chris. I won't give you my first-born daughter, but I owe you something big. In a close second: Mark (my fencing sub-contractor from work) Will, Paul, Michael and Dustin. Everyone was a huge help. Y'all are awesome for showing up and for not hating me at the end of the day. I owe y'all as well. Oh yeah, and Frankie. Thanks for dropping by ;)

I set up this blog for two purposes: the first is that it is a way to keep all of our family and friends (that we may not talk to as regularly as we should) up to date on what is going on; secondly (as it was so delicately pointed out today) so that others can learn from our experiences. I have a pretty decent "nugget of wisdom" to drop on y'all here. Part of it is things I did right, and part of it isn't. If you never plan on building or having a fence built, ignore the next part.

1. This is key - If you have a significant number of trees in your yard and are building a fence over 150' HIRE SOMEONE. I knew this would be a good deal of work, but I would not have believed how much work it would be if I hadn't been there.

2. Rent an auger. Unless you are setting four or less posts, spend the money and rent an auger. This will make the job was easier. If you think the job won't be that bad, see #1.

3. It is advisable to have a professional or experienced amateur on hand. I thought I knew all that I needed to know (I've been picking my Mark's brain for weeks), but I didn't.

4. Have a reciprocating saw on hand. When you find a significant root, you'll understand.

5. When asked where you want the gate to go, don't say "ask the wife." You will end up with a double gate large enough to fit a semi-through (almost).

6. We hit a root larger than 8" across more than a foot in the ground. We dug out barbed wire a foot underground. We ran into concrete. We had to cut down a couple of small trees (up to 5" in diameter.) You will be amazed at what you find and the extra work that crops up.

7. This seems really obvious, I know, but it bears noting: 80 lbs sacks of concrete are heavy. The first one may not be that bad. The 5th one sucks. It gets worse from there.

8. Shop around for prices. Call the lumber yard 20 miles away. If they have the best price, they may deliver for free. If they don't deliver for free, Lowe's will probably price match if they can verify it. I shit you not, one Lowes (out of 3 in BR) has fence pickets for 30 cents less than the others. No 30 cents doesn't seems like much. Multiply it by 500. That's not just pocket change.

9. Home Depot sucks (don't ask).

10. You can't have too many friends. You know they are friends if they know that you are calling to ask you to help set posts and they still answer.

That's all for now, but if I think of anything else I'll post it. I thought it was a bit amusing that my neighbor walks over today as we are setting the last half dozen posts to tell us that we are welcome to tie into his fence. I didn't want to because it is only 4 feet high, but I thought it was kind of funny. Jenny has been taking pictures and I will upload them at some point. I believe that's all for now. I will update when we finish the fence, but that may be a couple of weeks.

Fencing

2008-07-19T11:43:00.000-07:00

When I say fencing I don't mean the kind with swords, that would be too much fun. No I mean the 6' dog-eared wooden fence kind. The $8 per linear foot kind. And yes, that's if you do it yourself (which I am for obvious reasons). That doesn't include gates. Did I mention my lot is 100' wide? So yeah, this is me bitching.

Izzy needs a lot more space to run around when we aren't home, so our immediate project is the fence, but the sheetrock is a close second. I previously did a preliminary layout with measurements in order to estimate the cost. Today Jenny and I put stakes at the corners (there are more than 4) and ran string lines to get an idea of how it will look and how much space there will be. It looks pretty good and Izzy took a few laps to try out the space. Next step involves purchasing materials and setting posts. I'll let you know how that goes.

Back to the den... When the den was added to the house, the way they tied the old roof to the new roof does not allow access to the attic space over the den (a considerable area). After conferring with David (my boss) I elected to put a small access panel to the attic in the den. In order to do this I will have to do quite a bit of framing work with the ceiling joists. I already removed the necessary ceiling tiles to view the area in question. I am going to wait to do the framing work until after we get the fence done, since that is a bit more pressing right now. As soon as the fence is done, it's back to the den to get the job fully underway. We have quite a few activities scattered over the coming weekends and football season is quickly approaching. I need to focus in order to make decent progress.

The other backyard operation is cleaning out the swale (small ditch) in my backyard. I did some work in there two weekends ago and again this morning. It's almost done. Since the swale won't be included in the fenced area, I feel the need to clean it up a bit before we hide it. We are probably going to go to our friends' house, Michael and Sarah's, this afternoon to let Izzy play with their lab Loki. I hope it goes well :/ It did last time.

Hope to update again soon!

She has a name!

2008-06-16T19:15:00.001-07:00

And it is Izzy! Short for Isabelle, of course. We had to pick a name today so that we could bring her to the vet to get checked out. She checked out great, with two exceptions. The vet believes that she is a little older than we were told. Based on her size, he estimates that she is closer to 12 weeks than the 8 weeks we thought. She also tested positive for an intestinal parasite which is very common in puppies. No big deal. The vet gave us some medicine to give her daily for the next couple of weeks. She had her first dose tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it. Seriously.

She weighed in at 13 lbs and was adored by everyone at the vet clinic. It didn't hurt that we interrupted a nap to make our appointment. She was very docile.

THE HOUSE!

So a small, but important update about the house. We met with Patti Crum on Sunday (father's day). For those who don't know her, she is Mr. James' sister. If you don't know who Mr. James is, consider Patti to be Jenny's aunt. She is working (at no charge) as our interior designer. We discussed what we needed to in order to get things moving again. We can begin sheetrocking shortly. We have chosen interior and exterior colors for the house. I am excited. I hope to have the den done for football season.

New Addition!

2008-06-14T17:02:00.001-07:00

So this post doesn't actually pertain to the physical structure of the house itself, but rather to those who live in it. We got a puppy! She is cute as a button and no, she doesn't have a name just yet. We are working on it. Her mother is a black lab and her father is a champion cattle herding Catahoula hound (state dog of LA). She and her siblings (I'm told there were 4 altogether) are the result of a hook-up at a social function for the owners of her parents. Her mother weighs in around 50 lbs and her father around 60-70. Hopefully she will be smaller than either of them *not holding breath* but we'll just have to wait and see. I am going to start a photo album for her.

Suggestions for names are welcome. She's active and likes to chew everything and is quickly learning what she she is allowed to chew on and what she is not. She loves playing outside and especially chewing on leaves, grass, and anything she can find. We are working on the house breaking thing and that's going okay. Right before we got her she learned to retrieve and can do that pretty well (for a 7 week old, come on...). She seems pretty smart.

She says "rwoo rwoo rwoo"

Explanation...

2008-05-15T07:47:00.000-07:00

This post is a result of harassment from the peanut gallery via facebook. The reason that the blog hasn't been updated recently is because there hasn't been much progress :( The last couple of weekends have been pretty busy. My birthday weekend we threw a crawfish boil on Friday, recovered on Saturday (and played a lot of Mario Kart at Miranda's) and then went to another crawfish boil on Sunday. This past weekend we went to dinner and Will's show on Friday. Cleaned house, grocery shopped, moved my BBQ Pit and the buffet, etc. on Saturday. Sunday we hosted Mother's Day for Mom, Cherie, Mimi, Nanny, Ms. Shirley, Dad and Uncle Joe. And Tuesday night we had Grandma, Aunt Linda, Paul, Christy, Brandy, and Ms. Shirley come over after dinner (at Sammy's) for cake and a tour of the house (and some Mario Kart).

The one bit of progress I have made was yesterday. All of those dangling wires seen in the last post are a result of removing the closet. I used the VERY limited knowledge of electricity that I have to get the two receptacles and fan that weren't working back into service. And I didn't shock myself!! (this really surprised me; I usually find a way)

I will post as soon as there are more developments. Hang in there!

The Closet is gone

2008-04-23T19:20:00.000-07:00

After a bit of sweating and cursing, the closet it gone. I guess there's not too much to really say about it. I used a flat bar, maul, and hammer to take it all out. I'm having a bit of trouble getting the top plate down. My boss has offerred me a larger pry bar and I think I am going to take him up on that. I'm sure I can get it down otherwise, but I think it'll be easier with a larger lever.

We now have to get on to the much larger and more daunting task of laying out the room (basically the electrical/lighting) and then hanging sheetrock. Anyone who wants to help (especially anyone with experience) is welcome!

Progress has been made!

2008-04-21T19:38:00.000-07:00

So I know I haven't maintained my previous frequency with the updates. Trust me, I know more than you do! I haven't been making the steady progress on the house that I once was. We were out of town last weekend. I have been doing various small things and have not made a substantial amount of progress in any particular area... until today!

The main project going on right now it the remodel of the "den." In a prior post, the desk/shelving unit was demolished. Today I began to "demo" the dryer closet. 'What is a dryer closet,' you might ask. Apparently many years ago (long before I existed) people had washing machines, but no dryers. Apparently it was in these prehistoric days that our house was originally built. When the den addition was constructed, dryers were in vogue. In order to accomodate this new bit of technology, they built a closet in the den to house the dryer. This placed the washer and dryer in two distinct (although adjacent) rooms.

Some time ago, I set about moving the dryer (vent and electrical outlet) into the laundry room proper. Today I cleaned all of my stuff out of the closet (Jenny removed her stuff earlier) and began the de-constructing. I decided to remove the paneling before breaking out the maul. I think it is less messy this way. It also allows me to view and dismantle the wiring before destroying the framing. Today I got all of the paneling from the closet, the shelves in the closet, and all trim molding. Jenny also assisted me in hauling all of the debris to the curb.

I took pictures to post here, but Jenny damaged her hard drive and the new one apparently does not have the necessary software to link up to the camera. I will work on that for next time.

Update...

2008-04-12T06:49:00.000-07:00

Not too much to say. Jenny and I are away this weekend and so won't be able to get any work done. The custom blinds that we ordered came in this week. They're just your standard 2" Faux Wood blinds. I have about half of them up so far. They're easy to put up, but I've been scrubbing each window as I go along. That's the pain and takes a while. I will update later this week as I hope to get some work done during the week. Stay tuned!

Shelf Demo

2008-04-06T20:14:00.000-07:00

On saturday, after my previous post, Kristen, Chris B, and I took out a built-in in the den. I had mostly disassembled the shelves on a previous night this week. Chris and I finished it up while the girls picked up lunch.

It didn't take very long and was pretty uneventful. I have posted some pictures of the work. Just one more step in the sheetrock project.

French Doors

2008-04-05T07:34:00.000-07:00

As with most of my adventures, this one begins with "Nathan and I..."

So a group of my friends (Chris B., Sarah, Michael, Nathan, Brooke, Jenny and I ) went out to dinner last Friday. After stuffing ourselves and drinking a couple of beers, Nathan and I decided to change out the sliding doors at our house for french doors. As I had already purchased two sets of french doors and was low on beer, we went to the grocery store. After securing "supplies" we make it back to the house. It is now around 10:00.

It is decided that the sliding door in the dining room will be changed out first because it is the most offensive. When we moved in the door was broken. It wouldn't move and was allowing water to enter the house. As a temporary solution I had previously siliconed it shut. Back to the story - the sliding part of the door came out with a bit of grunting and cussing. The fixed part of the door (which can usually be removed whole) was not so willing. It was built into the jamb. We thought, let's remove the glass so we don't break it. Well, it was impossible to remove it without breaking it. Okay, let's just rip this thing out. In doing so, we broke every piece of glass in it, save one. Hoorah! The door is out!

As a side note, Michael decides to remove the single piece of glass that survived, for posterity's sake I suppose. In the course of trying to remove it, he broke it. Now we install the door! The door is brought over, placed in the hole... The opening is too big. About an inch and a half too big all around. There is no way we can finish this in one night.

So, there's a big hole in the side of the house (approx. 6' x 6' 8") and a door that is not quite big enough. So we stick it in there for the night and hang some fabric over it. With plans to start fresh the next day, we drink some more beer and then go to bed.

The next morning Nathan called at 9:00. I answer the phone, still in bed, to find that he is at the front door. I am speechless. Jenny called me a liar (not really, but she probably thought it). I throw on some shorts and run to the door and (Holy Crap!) he's actually standing there. This is shaping up to be a good start. After a Lowe's run and a call to Michael for backup, we eat some blueberry muffins and set to work.

By about 3:00 we have both doors installed, squared and good to go. Turns out we should have started with the other door. It was much more cut and dry. As with any good project, it's not entirely done. I can't trim out the inside because I have to sheet rock over the paneling first. I can't trim out the outside until I purchase some tools. The doors function and look so much better than the sliding doors did.

First post!

2008-03-31T19:22:00.001-07:00

So I've been wanting to do this since we closed on the house. Jenny doesn't seem crazy about it, so we'll see how often she posts.

There is a great deal to cover in the beginning, so I'm going to split this into a few posts.

We bought a house! You probably already know this. You may or may not have been to it. I am going to set up a photo album to serve a couple of different purposes. First and foremost, we want to preserve the original (and I mean ORIGINAL) look of the house. Secondly, I want everyone who hasn't yet toured it to know what we're up against. Lastly, I want a way to compare. This is the room before and after; the floor before and after, the door before and after, etc.

If you've already been here or are privy to the tale so far, you can skip this paragraph. Jenny and I purchased a house in Baton Rouge. The house was built in the 1960s. It is a Ranch-style, 4 Bedroom, 3 bath, 2500 sq. ft. brick house. It sits on a decent sized lot: 100' x 180'. The house has not been updated since it was built. You only think I'm exaggerating. The dining room, kitchen and den (a later addition to the original house) have paneling. The refrigerator is avocado green. All of the light fixtures are original. The bedrooms had blue or green sculptured carpet.

Been to the house? Skip this one too. You can look at the album (once it's published) to get the full idea. All of the flooring in the house will be replaced, except for the parquet floor in the front room. That will be refinished. Everything will be sheetrocked. All of the bi-fold, louvered doors will be gone. The list goes on...

The plan is to post (with pictures) all of our weekend projects. My friends have already been a big help (thanks to Michael and Nathan and Chris B). A number of other people have offered their assistance and will appear later in the blog. Our plan is to do whatever we can feasibly do ourselves and to pay contractors to do the rest.

In the upcoming posts I will bring you up to date on what has been done thus far. I will post on facebook when I update (if you don't know what this means, don't worry about it) to point people over here. As we plan to be working on the house frequently, we should be updating pretty frequently.

Wish us luck!