Nursery Prep

Now that we've moved the office down to the basement, we've been working on getting Katie's room in order and taking care of other items on the to-do list before she arrives. This weekend, we:

• installed the new computer in the basement
• Hemmed and doctored curtains
• picked up a new chair
• installed a closet system
• made curtain sheers from scratch
• painted the garage exterior's first coat

I also learned why there's no good reason to make your own curtains unless you can't find what you want or are high on pregnancy hormones.

I expected it to be much easier/faster but making those curtains ended up taking most of the weekend. My back ached by the end and it was more expensive to buy the fabric than it would have been to buy pre-made curtains. Once I realized this, I bought pre-made curtain panels instead, hemmed them to fit and added a band of fun fabric on the bottom to doctor them up. The banding can be easily removed later if a different look is desired.

I made the sheers myself though (latter being $30 in fabric rather than $20 to buy premade in the store). I do love the softness of the sheers though -- better than any I found in stores. But still, they took quite a bit of time to make and were not any cheaper.

Here's a picture of the chair and curtains in Katie's room. I was trying to get more of the curtains in the picture, but I only had my phone on me and couldn't get the light correct without showing more chair than curtain.

Dirty Drawers Floors

After the strawberry jam incident, you'd think I would have had enough. But I still had several pounds of berries on the counter to process last weekend, so after Ken went to bed on Saturday night, I stayed up and plowed through them.

I washed and hulled them all, dividing them into:

1. Large intact barries - for cutting and drying
2. Medium intact berries - for fresh eating (washed but unhulled)
3. Small intact berries - for freezing in a single layer and then bagging
4. Perfectly ripe, but not for long - for popsicles and sorbet
5. Bruised but fine - for jam

I sat down for most of this, but I was still exhausted by the end. After they were all safely stored in the freezer, fridge or dehydrator, I went to bed. The next morning, I got to work on the processed berries. I made:

1. strawberry rhubarb jam -- 14 pints of it.
2. strawberry popsicles
3. strawberry sorbet
4. Pulled the dried strawberries from the dehydrator for later use
5. Bagged the frozen strawberries for later syrup
6. simple syrup (pressure canned for future lemonade applications)

I finished around 1, sat down and ate brunch. Apparently I still had some energy afterwards because I got back up and made:

7. 10 lbs of gnocchi (froze individual pieces on cookie sheets and then bagged when frozen solid for later boiling)
8. Chocolate chip cookies (froze as pre-formed balls on cookie sheets and bagged for later cookie cravings).

By the time I finished this, it was 5 or so and I was still in my pajamas, exhausted and sticky from gnocchi dough/jam/cookies. I also had a line of flour running across my belly from where it now touches the counter when I work. I had a pile of pots in the sink and was working through them, exhausted. It was at this point when Ken asked if I wanted to have people over. I told him I wanted to get through the dishes first and then we could talk about it. He then asked if he should send a text message out to people, which is when I must have snapped at him because he went to the basement for 20 minutes or so before going out to hide in the garage.

I went on with the dishes, ignoring my lack of patience and social grace due to exhaustion. I had been working for 8 hours and felt somewhat excused. It was at this point of rationalizing that I heard running water downstairs. I yelled to Ken in the garage to see if he'd turned on some water. He said no. I went to the basement to investigate, only to find water rushing onto the basement floor at a record pace.

I yelled to Ken as I ran downstairs to turn off the water main.

Nothing.

Water is still streaming onto the floor, now reaching the drywall I just installed.

Ken passes me and went for the washing machine. Apparently, the water was coming from the output of the washing machine, which had somehow come undone from the wall and was draining onto our basement floor. 60% of our floor was now covered in water, including the area rug, the new moldings I just installed, parts of the gear room and soaking any cardboard boxes that were on the floor, etc.

I am still in my pajamas and slippers, covered in ick, now mopping up dirty, soapy water from our washing machine. I began having flashbacks of the basement hell from a few months ago. Meanwhile, Ken got out the shop vac and we exchanged jobs (since holding a vacuum cleaner hose is easier than manual mopping). It took us 30 minutes, a 30 gallon pot and two additional shop vac empties to rid the floor of water.

Ken saw my look of despair and finished up for me while I finished the remaining dishes in the kitchen (after turning the water main back on). I then took a shower and put on other PJs. I was beat. I think I sat on the couch, barely moving for the rest of the night (about 2 hours) before crashing.

The rug has since dried and the jam is now safely stored in the basement. Yet I still think of the basement, covered in water. It brings panic to my heart. My one bit of solace is thanks to my mom, who talked us out of putting laminate wood floors in the basement. We've had water on the floors twice, so that would have been a disaster for us. The painted concrete has held up very well so far. The drywall seems unharmed and everything seems back to normal. The only cardboard boxes damaged were empty anyway. I try to keep water-resistant things on the ground floor -- apparently for good reason.

I am hoping that the basement saga will end soon. I recently remembered that I forgot to cut holes in the soffits for access to the outside water lines. I remembered when I tried to turn on the hose in the front of the house. Fitting that in order to do so, I had to pull out a drywall saw and cut into the ceiling. I still have another to go, as well as some access panels for vent shut offs. Then it's creating the access panels to cover the holes. Likely to be done next week. Ken installed an ethernet/cable jack in the basement so we can move the office down, but we need help in order to do so because the furniture is too heavy.

Once the furniture's downstairs, then we can work on Katie's room. Now if only the basement would stop causing me headaches.

iPhone and Crib

It was a happy day yesterday. Two big purchases that change things:

1. An iPhone. Apple is coming out with a new one so they dropped the price of their old one to <$100. My old phone (which they don't make anymore) started dropping calls and losing reception, so it was a great time to upgrade. Now I can keep track of appointments, check email (work and home), etc. on the go. iPhones are awesome. I've been coveting Ken's for a while now. I'm particularly fond of the GPS maps feature since I frequently get lost in new places.

2. Crib. I've been searching craigslist for a couple of weeks and just found a crib in a darker wood about 10 blocks from our house. We picked it up last night after our stop at the apple store (see crib picture below; we didn't get the bedding). We had to disassemble the crib to get it in the door. It is now in pieces in Katie's room. Having a crib in the house (even disassembled) makes upcoming baby feel a little more real. Earlier in my pregnancy, I was not so excited about getting things ready or decorating. That has changed where I'm now looking forward to it. I'm still not ready to embroider baby books or anything, but I am ready to start on some fun craft projects to hang over the crib. I'm planning to make some bigger paper lanterns out of the brightly colored tissue paper leftover from our wedding -- almost five years ago. I'm hoping to make the room fun without being too "baby-ey".

Weekend in Review

I love long weekends. Especially ones that are sunny and not too warm. I go manic, which usually results in lots of projects. This one was no exception. Here's a recap of what we did this weekend:

Friday

• I worked from home today since it takes me 1.5 hours round trip to commute by bike. All of my work for Friday was on the computer so it worked out well. I finished around 3 and then cleaned our bedroom -- about 2 cats worth of hair that had accumulated under our bed from over the winter. Gross.
• Urethaning the porch screen doors -- Ken has always wanted wooden screen doors for our porches. When our front aluminum porch door busted (albeit two years ago), we pulled the trigger and ordered two unfinished douglas fir screen doors with storm panel inserts. I stained them last week and did the first coat of spar urethane this morning. I did the first coat on the other side around 5:30. Yes, I wore an organic vapor respirator.
  
• Laundry (the homemade laundry detergent works! I also started making my own dishwashing detergent, which also works! The latter was out of necessity since we ran out one day and we had a ton of dishes to do. A mix of two ingredients -- washing soda and borax in equal parts - and behold clean dishes and no trips to the store. We haven't purchased more store-bought since)
• Went to dinner with some friends at a new butcher shop/restaurant that opened tonight down the street. I bought 9 lbs of pork belly for making bacon/pancetta while we waited for a table. I like having a butcher shop nearby, although this one is a little expensive for everyday use.
  

Saturday

• Dirt piles moved. We planted potatoes and asparagus this spring - both of which require trenches. I dug both graves beds about a month ago, planted the veggies using fresh compost and had a lot of clay piled up on the side from where I dug. Earlier this week, I consolidated the two compost piles and incorporated the clay between layers in an effort to improve the soil for future use. It was a lot of moving but I finished the last of it this morning. Finishing moving the piles allowed room for me to lay down mulch....
  
• Yard of mulch installed. Ken picked up a yard of mulch at Mt Scott Fuel and I laid most of it while he worked on the doors. Before I laid the mulch in some areas...
• Moved plants into the new back bed. I scavenged our front shade bed for some "friends" to divide and move to the new (mostly empty) back bed. It now has a peony, two types of blueberries, swiss chard, beets, golden sage, a variegated lungwort, toad lilies, lady's mantle, two fuschias, daylilies, some grasses and a heuchera. I'm pretty proud of it. Once it was all down, I mulched the bed and watered well.
  
• Second coat of urethane on the porch doors. (Ken did this)
  
• Friend's barbecue at 4:30.

Sunday

• Ken began the long process of installing the porch doors. He started with the front door and installed new trim, hung the door, drilled and installed the latches, etc. It took most of the day but looks awesome.
• Meanwhile, I installed moulding in the basement to cover the areas where the drywall meets the floor. Ken and I shared the compound miter saw in the front yard. I was very proud of myself for mitering the corners, getting the cuts right and even using the angle scribe and jigsaw appropriately to cut around tough corners and notches. The floor moulding is now complete, meaning the office can now go down to the basement and we can start on the nursery.
• Window framing - While I had the saw out, I decided to fix the window that fell out in the snow this winter. I removed the 2x4 and packing tape holding everything in place, removed the glass and stripped it of paint/packing tape residue, cut some moulding for the inside frame and painted the window sill and frame to match the rest of the basement windows.
  
• At this point it was 7:30 and we were completely exhausted. We went for sushi and then went for bed. I miss eating fish and drinking beer.... especially after a long workday.

Monday

• So tired. My one cup of coffee a day just isn't cutting it. I am much slower today than yesterday. It took me a while to get started. I began by planting some more watermelons, cantaloupes, honeydew, pumpkins and delicata squash in our two back beds. I figure since I'm gettting bigger everyday, I won't be able to weed easily for too much longer and planting some large-leaf vining veggies that take over the garden will help out with that. Ken won't have much trouble harvesting the giant fruits and I'm hoping they'll keep the weeds down as they cover most of our garden. Plus, the pumpkins and winter squash can be harvested and kept for a while (meaning I won't have to do much processing when I'm 8 months pregnant).
  
• Installed the window moulding. The basement window moulding that I painted yesterday is now up. I am excited.
• Painting the garden windows - I love windows with the old wavy glass. Last year, I found some wooden windows on the side of the road with the old glass. I loaded them into the car and put them in the garage until I figured out a use for them. I decided to hang them on the fence around the garden as a way to bounce some light around. I painted them a dark bluish purple that we had leftover from our house's previous owners (to the groans of Ken -- "purple???"). Did 2 coats on each side. I have touch ups left to do and then they're ready to hang. Ken says he'll wait to make judgment on the color until he sees them in place.
  
• Glazing the basement windows -- now that the windows are clean, I stripped the frames of putty (not much) and re-inserted the glass using glazing points, putty and mineral spirits (yes, I wore gloves). Now both basement windows have properly glazed windows that can't be removed with a piece of tape. It will take 7-14 days for the putty to cure.
• Fixed the umbrella -- one of the support pieces snapped in the wind about 2 years ago. I promised myself I'd fix it but never got to it last year. So I got some mending plates and wood glue and went to work. After Ken heard cursing, he came to help me with the second half of it. Sadly, the drill was getting too heavy for me to hold by the end of the day. He finished installing the last of the screws and attached the clamps while it dries overnight.
  
• Grilled out and I was in bed before dark. I tried my hardest to make it until dark, but it was pointless. I went to bed at 9:08. Staying up those last 8 minutes was hard.
  

Tuesday

• I am happily back at work. I don't think I have the energy for another long weekend like that. But I'm very happy for what we accomplished.
• Tonight Ken is removing the porch screen doors so I can paint the new trim to match the rest of the house. (I found a quart of matching paint in the seconds department of Rodda Paint for $1! I was excited).
• Ken is subbing for a friend's softball team
  
• In addition to the porch trim, I also plan to finish touch ups on the garden windows, put up the umbrella and paint the mending plates black to match the rest of the umbrella wood.

(Not so) Dry Well

A few years back, Ken woke up one morning to find our basement flooded caused by a backed up dry well in the backyard. He cleaned it out and we've been fine ever since.

Except for Monday night when we had a ton of rain and Ken saw some water coming in through the basement. He ran outside to see the gutter leaders backed up and spilling water next to the foudation. Ken unhooked the leaders from the drywell and came back in to clean up the water. We caught it just in time. (i.e. before it flooded our entire basement -- we are very psyched the painted concrete floor is ok with water -- unlike the laminate flooring we were thinking of putting in). Insert sigh of relief here.

Ken dug a giant hole in the backyard yesterday and is installing a trap with cleanout tonight -- so we don't have this problem again in another 4 years. A pain, but worth it.

Projects to Distract Me

Ken was out of town yesterday for work, so it seemed a great time to get busy on some projects to take my mind off of things.

The three I wanted to accomplish:
1. Sand the drywall (the last of it in the basement!)
2. Paint the second coat of the soon-to-be office wall
3. Make laundry detergent.

I'm happy to say that all were accomplished. I even found two awesome old windows when I was walking Kinley that I grabbed. I'll refinish them at some point -- maybe put in some leaded glass or build them into a cabinet.

The laundry detergent was the easiest and most fun. There are plenty of recipes online -- most use borax, washing soda and bar soap (all available in the laundry aisle of the grocery store). From what I've read, it lasts a while, works great and costs $0.02/load rather than $0.30/load for storebought. There are recipes for liquid or powdered versions, so you can make whatever suits your needs. Looks pretty easy. I tried a small batch first.

Homemade Laundry Soap

1/3 bar Fels Naptha or other type of soap... Read More
½ cup washing soda
½ cup borax powder

~2 gallon size bucket~

Grate the soap and put it in a sauce pan. Add 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts. Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket. Now add your soap mixture and stir. Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir. Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel. You use ½ cup per load.

And the result?

It worked! I thought grating hard soap would be a pain, but it was super simple. Other tasks including boiling water, stirring and measuring out two 1/2 cup ingredients, so it was really, really simple and made the whole house smell amazing.

My brother came to visit just as I was about to add the soap and I got the "what are you doing?" look, but he quickly got into it too. It's too simple and fun not to enjoy. Kids would love to see this being made... soap, bubbles and stirring. Fun.

We put the warm mixture into a glass pickle jar and only used the original 6 cups of water. So it's super concentrated and solidified into a gelatinous mass within 2 hours (probably why they add more water). But all it needs is diluting, so I'm not going to worry about it. I can just use less of it in the wash (or I can dilute it -- I haven't decided which path to take yet)....

So, so far, highly recommended. I gave Andrew a jar of it and he's going to test it out tonight since he has to do laundry.

April Updates

Lots of things going on around here.

* Baby is still in there. It will be 3-3/4 months this weekend. Amazing that it will be 4 months very soon. The good news is I can still wear my normal pants. The bad news is not for long.

* My parents (who are very excited to be grandparents) are coming out to visit on May 1st for 2 weeks. It will be fun to see them, especially since Andrew now lives here too. My mom wants to go maternity clothes shopping, which I think is very sweet. They'll be driving out and checking out sights along the way -- also visiting Vancouver BC and Seattle while they're nearby.

* My peach tree (the one I planted last spring) has lots of hot pink blossoms. I've been hand-pollinating them with a paintbrush. My asian pear, also planted last spring, has lots of white blossoms that are just about the bloom. I am very happy about these things.

* The basment is still in progress. It is mostly finished, but I'm still working on the molding and learning how to use the compound miter saw. Ken and I worked on it last weekend after I learned how to do it "the hard way". I also have to finish the drywall around the closet doors and paint. That probably won't get done this weekend, because....

* This weekend is Easter. We're having 54 confirmed guests (including 2 babies under the age of 6 months). It is supposed to rain. Good thing Ken built the arbor and we have a ginormous (technical term) tarp we can throw over it and tie down. On the docket for tonight and tomorrow are filling over 1000 plastic eggs.

* I will be sad to not partake in mimosas this weekend. That said, I've learned that OJ, seltzer water and lime is an ok substitute.

* I bought my first pair of non-athletic shoes in 3 years. I can't wait to break them out for easter. It is taking all of my might not to post a picture of them here. But I will write an open-blog love letter to them after Sunday.

* The appraisal came back on our house and we were happy to find out that (despite the economy not having the basement completely finished), it is doing great. We were happy to hear that.

* Work is going well for both of us. I'm writing a grant for my job and enjoying doing it. I'm also going to a conference in Minnesota in May. I'm looking forward to it. My boss has been very supportive of my "condition". The pregnancy hasn't gotten in the way of work except for some headaches that come in the early afternoons. I just work through them, but it stinks. Today, I'm lucky that they started early in the morning. At least it's friday.

* Ken and I checked out a daycare facility last week and were shocked that, despite not needing daycare until January, 2010, we're on the wait list with an excellent chance of not getting a spot. The baby's not even born yet, though I felt like we were going through college admissions. And just like admissions, they took $40 from us to hold our name on the wait list. How sweet. We're going to put our names on a few more places, but sheesh, the daycare situation is crazy. You may want to sign up before you get pregnant. (I'm kidding -- kind of).

* I just got the call that my asparagus crowns arrived. I'll be picking them up this weekend. I'm very excited about them and will plant 10 plants.

* I still can't parallel park in my new car and feel ridiculous.

* I'm really looking forward to next weekend when we have no plans except for catch-up things.

Basement is finished!!

Kind of.

I still have the base moldings to install, finish one more section of drywall around the closet door and touch up the paint in areas that need it.

But....

All of the furniture is now moved back into place and we have our dining room again. The floors were dry enough to put back the furniture/appliances last Thursday. Andrew helped us on Friday evening and we finished the rest of it yesterday, with the last dregs of it this morning. The appraiser came at 10 am this morning to inspect the house (no word yet on how that went).

Things are finally going back to normal. Andrew also found a place nearby and moved most of his stuff from storage to his new place on Sunday. He'll be getting the rest of his stuff from our house over the next few days.

So by next weekend, we'll have the place back to ourselves -- in a heated, refinanced house that now has all of its rooms functional and with working cars in the driveway. It has been a long, tough month.

Basement Paint Finished

Now it takes three days to dry before we can move furniture back. Then, no cleaning (or washing it) for 30 days as the epoxy fully cures.

Our house is still cold. I'm looking forward to tomorrow when we can turn the heat back on.

Basement, First coat

The basement is now free of etcher, has been primed and the first coat of paint is down. Only one more to go -- which should go down tonight.

I can't wait for it to be over.

Basement Hell, continued

We learned yesterday that parts of the "wet basement floor" weren't wet from water, but chemical. It took three of us three hours to scrub the 85 degree basement on our hands and knees last night. Bucket of clean water, empty bucket for dirty and a sponge (pluse chemical gloves, of course). As soon as we applied water to the "wet" spots, you could immediately see the soapy bubbles which we painstakingly tried to remove.

Luckily, there are no fumes in this process. It's just incredibly hot down there due to the heat being cranked to dry things out. (Note: the heat from the basement coming through the vent in our living room blew the circuit on our TV console twice -- we had to close the vent to prevent this from happening).

After the 3 hour wash session, places that were wet are now dry... only to show us the spots we missed and will have to do again tonight. Luckily, there aren't that many places to redo. No wonder people do this outside. Or on smooth surfaces. Pock-mocked basement floors with no drainage are a huge pain.

Plus, we realized we totally missed a spot -- meaning complete re-etching in a 3x4 foot area. For better or worse, it's in a high traffic area so I want to make sure its done right so the paint doesn't peel in a few years. I don't want to have to go through this again.

Under the Gun

We're in the process of renovating our basement. The current project is refinishing the concrete floor. It's been stripped (thanks to Andrew and Ken) and was etched on Monday night. We expected it to dry in a day. No luck. We turned off the heat to lessen acid fumes from entering the rest of the house. We also removed the basement windows and installed window fans to increase cross ventilation.

But Tuesday morning, the floor was still wet
Tuesday evening: wet

We went to our local big box and hardware stores looking for fans. A bust due to it being winter and all. Sigh.

Wednesday morning: wet

So we went to gmail and facebook to ask friends if they had any to spare. Success. Several replies and we ended up borrowing Dave's 24,000 btu kerosene heater. Dave says it can heat his house to 85 degrees in 30 minutes. Perfect. Ken picked it up at 5:30. It was on by 6:30.

When Ken went to bed at 11 and turned it off (I was in bed at 9 and no help), the floor was still wet.

Thursday morning: wet. The basement was 55 degrees with 80% relative humidity (usually our basement is 65 degrees with 65% relative humidity -- excellent for sausage making -- and also the reason I have a thermometer and hygrometer down there).

On my way in to work, I realize that the moisture has nowhere to go. It's been raining outside for days. The heat's off. The only thing that's gone are the fumes. I realize our best bet is to reinstall the windows and turn on the heat to push the moist air from the basement through the rest of the house (and warm it up in the process). I email Ken to tell him my idea.

He does one better. Ken went to Dave's and borrowed his dehumidifier as well. So we can close the windows, turn on the BTU heater, turn on the house heater (to circulate the air) and have the dehumidifier on. A great plan.

Ken was feeling achy today and is working from home. It is an especially perfect day to do it because he can have the heater on while he works upstairs. He said within 30 minutes, our basement was 85 degrees with 80% humidity. A balmy rainforest. However, it's now down to 73% humidity (still 85 degrees).

I'm hoping the humidity continues to drop. We're way behind on being able to prime for painting. Did I mention we're refinancing our house and the appraiser comes next Thursday? Here's the schedule from whenever the floor dries:

Day 1: Apply primer
Day 2: Apply epoxy paint, coat #1
Day 3: Apply epoxy paint, coat #2
Day 4: Paint needs 72 hours to dry before bringing furniture back in. This would be 24 hrs
Day 5: Drying 48 h
Day 6: Drying 72 hours. Can move furniture back in at the end of the day today.

So if we apply primer today (no chance), that means furniture/appliances can come back in next wednesday. Appraiser comes 10 am Thursday morning.

Do you think he/she will mind seeing a dining room stuffed floor to ceiling with boxes? Or that we have a washer, dryer and refrigerator in our backyard?

Sigh.*


* Note: I'm still happy we're doing this project, I'm just a bit overwhelmed. Our house is a cold, dark, queasy place for me right now. I'm ready for spring -- in every sense of the word. Kind of mindblowing that in 10 days, everything will be different.... the basement will be finished and I'll be in my second trimester (theoretically much less queasiness). We'll also have heat and more space to move around (due to furniture/appliances being back in their normal spots). I'm hopeful. Also queasy, tired, hungry, frustrated, etc.

_________________
UPDATE: Just as I was about to post this, I got a call from Ken. He said the places where the floor is wet, it isn't wet from water. It's leftover chemical. He was on his hands and knees with a sponge and two buckets of water -- lo and behold, it dried almost immediately. So, it looks like we have some grunt work for tonight, but at least it will dry quickly. He also said there's one spot that wasn't etched, so we'll have to redo one section. Boo.

Etching Complete

The basement project continues. Last night we cleaned and etched the floor. Ken, Andrew and I wore acid-resistant hazmat suits, goggles, vapor respirators and acid gloves. We took turns applying the phosphoric acid-based product, waiting 10-20 min, scrubbing vigorously and the laborious process of mopping it up. We started around 6:30 and finished at 11:15. This would be a very easy process outside, but inside, it sucks.

We were exhausted afterwards and each went directly to our comfort foods as we propped our feet up from the couch. Ken went for the ice cream with nestle quik powder on top (his favorite), I went for a bowl of clementines and Andrew cracked open the baby loaf of cheddar cheese. We ate in silence and exhaustion, then went to bed.

Our house is very cold right now. The basement windows are open to vent the fumes. We also turned off our heat -- since the furnace is located in the basement -- and pumping the fumes through the house (or igniting them) is stupid. It's 44 degrees outside. I'd say our house is somewhere between 50-55. Needless to say, it was hard to wake up this morning. I bribed myself with a belgian waffle and sausage when I got to work, which did the trick. It was delicious.

Tonight, we're applying the primer (provided the etched floors are dry -- I have a good feeling they will be). This should be a pretty simple night. Quick vacuum. Cut in around the corners and roll the rest. One coat.

I can't wait for the basement to be finished and our house go back to normal.

Basement Hell

We are in the middle of painting the basement floor with a garage epoxy. It is killing my soul. We've moved everything (including washer & dryer, refrigerator, all shelving, workbenches, etc) out. It is either in our dining room, guest room, garage or covered with a tarp in our backyard.

On Saturday, Ken and Andrew stripped 100 year old paint in the gear room. Full on respirators, hazmat suits, chemical gloves, the works. They finished around 1:30 am.

Yesterday, Ken did a test patch of the etcher/cleaner. It immediately fizzes and then you scrub 20 minutes later. This is what we're doing tonight over the entirety of the basement floor.

Tomorrow is the primer.

Wednesday is the first coat of epoxy paint.

Thursday is the second coat of epoxy paint.

3 days until furniture can come back means Sunday night. Did I mention we have no heat until this process is finished.

Hell is cold.

Weekend Plans

Are few and far between. I had a cold last week and have been pretty exhausted. Ken had the same cold a few days ago. Andrew has it now. We're all pretty tired and looking forward to some R&R.

The things I would like to finish this weekend are:

Frame out the basement soffits. Most of them are finished. We rerouted our gas line last weekend to get everything to fit. Now it's just a matter of framing in the last bit (near the fridge), adding the drywall and start the mudding.

Finish the 3rd coat of drywall on the main area. I did all the taping and first two coats of mud this week. Only the final coat is left, so I've been saving that for a time when I have enough energy to power through it.

Prime the ceiling. Once the 3rd coat is finished and sanded, it's priming time. Can do this in steps.


Later this week and to come:


Paint the ceiling. I've been waiting to do this for months. I have only primed the ceiling because I wanted a perfectly even coat when the paint came along. Once this step is finished, I will do a small happy dance because....

Install the flooring. For longer than I've wanted to paint the ceiling, I've wanted to have some sort of floor in the basement. Originally, I was thinking of doing an acid etch. Then a stain. Then a paint. But now, we're leaning towards installing a wood laminate floor down there. I was hoping for something like that but I thought Ken was against it. He was hoping for it but thought I was against it. Communication is a good thing. We'll be looking into products this weeekend.

Install the baseboards. Oh sweetness, the project is coming together. Once the flooring is in, I can install the baseboard to clean up the look of things. Then, it's time to...

Move the office down to the basement. Putting all the furniture back and having an office for all of our paperwork would be divine. I can hardly wait.

Install the moldings. This isn't a necessary step per se, but I think it will really enhance the look of things down there. This can come later. As can...

Install a 2nd bathroom. But, like I said, that's down the road.

Incoming

My brother arrives today. In less than 6 hours.

Meanwhile, I spent most of the long holiday weekend sleeping and working on the basement. I am doing the last corner now -- where the workshop is. I finished the three coats of drywall mud, priming and painting two coats of two different colors. Now it's just a matter of hanging the pegboard, painting that and moving my workspace over to that area.

After that, Ken is helping me frame the soffits to hide all the weird wiring, pipes, etc. There will be access panels where appropriate, but other than that, we're hoping for a sleek look in the basement (well, sleek as far as basements go, that is). We went to the Rebuilding Center on Sunday and bought reclaimed 2x4s for 0.15/foot. So for $22.50, we purchased 150 feet of wood. Pretty awesome. I'm hoping that we'll get a lot of the framing done this week/weekend so I can start installing the drywall next weekend. I wonder if Andrew likes drywall...

After that, I'll be refinishing the basement floor by acid etching the concrete (looks like stain, but penetrates better than regular concrete staining). Thanks to the Sirkins for the help on how to do it. Then it's installing the baseboards and sitting down with a beer in hand as I admire the huge transformation of the basement. I can't wait. I've been working on it since this summer. I have a feeling I still have about 6 months to go, too. Ugh.

Happy Anniversary, Wuz!

Today marks 4 years. How time flies. We're going out to dinner tonight. Is it wrong that I'm thinking about squeezing in a drywall coat before we leave? Hmmm.

I'm on the the canning area now.

Drywall Madness

I have been drywalling for weeks. Doing a corner of the basement at a time. A little bit each day. I'm working on my canning area now, but I figured I'd post some before and after photos of what I've accomplished so far.

I divided the photos into three sections. They're posted in the order that I finished each area. In order, I have finished:

Gear Room
Craft Area
Washer and Dryer

Gear Room
Sadly, there are no before pictures of this room because I was too embarrassed to take them. Suffice it to say, this room had a hole in the wall that went outside. No more. Everything is sealed up and insulated. Plus, since this room is too small to be a bedroom and too large to be a closet, we made it our "gear room". Perfect use for us since we have plenty of stuff to fill it. I installed pegboard on two of the walls so we can change things around easily as we change our gear.

After: Gear room shelves. Each bin has a dedicated use: fishing, football, baseball/softball, training gear, etc. Coolers and water jugs also fit on here. Sleeping bags hang to the left of these shelves.


After: Gear room wall with backpacks. On the right are our shelves & hanging sleeping bags. On the left are our skis/snowboard, poles and rackets of various uses.


After: Gear room wall with skis. Snowshoes hang below. Our headlamps are in the wall basket for easy access. Ken's Hood to Coast medal is on the wall.





Craft Area

Once I figured things out, I moved to my craft area. This purple was burning my retinas. And this picture was taken after thejoint compound was added. I can only tell you the horrendousness of the space. On a sidenote, in this section of the ceiling was where we found the porn and empty whiskey bottle when we moved in. This is the before picture, looking at it from the stairs (gear room entrance is on the right):


After: It still needs to be organized, but you get the idea. I like the chocolate brown color. Very fun. Bonus that the gallon of paint only cost $1.


Before, looking at it from the workshop


After




Washer and Dryer
I plowed through this area this weekend when Ken was gone. It took me a good week to finish it. Well worth the time. Although I am quite sore. There was a lot of ceiling involved.

Before: Washer and dryer area as you came down the basement stairs


After: The mustard brown is so fun. It's cheery but not too bright when you're in the space. I wanted to paint our foyer this color, but Ken pleaded with me to keep it, so I painted the area down here instead. I would do laundry in this area. The before was way too dismal for me.


Before: sink next to the washer and drier. We tore it apart when we found a leak.


After: leak is fixed and wall is patched.


Before: Laundry area from the workshop. Note the lack of drywall under the window. When you folded your clothes, you had to make sure it didn't touch the insulation. Ugh.


After: Washer and drier area, same view looking from workshop



Hooray! Drywall is fun. And so rewarding.

Backpacking in the Wallowas

Ken and Kinley are traveling to Eastern Oregon this weekend to go backpacking in the Wallowa mountains with friends. Unfortunately, I can't go for time off reasons. Sad, but I'm looking forward to having the weekend alone. My goal is to finish drywalling the washer & dryer area of the basement. It's been a long process and I'm sick of looking at that area. Ken leaves Friday morning and comes back Tuesday. That gives me quite a few days to do the work and hide the evidence (read: mess). I'm hoping to even have it painted by the time he gets back. Can't wait.

Also on the itinerary is Natascha's baby shower and going to our friends' house for games and hanging out. Should be fun. I also want to do a lot of gardening. I have some plants I want to transplant and divide.

But sadly, more than all of this, all I can think about is going to sleep in my new bed. I've been going to bed at 9:30 every night this week. I wake up at 8 am. I am still tired. I want to sleep more. I can't wait.

Sleeping, version 2.0

Ken and I bought a new bed. It arrives today "sometime between 1 and 3".

We are excited. Our current bed allows you feel the springs and hear them crinkle when you move. We've been wanting a new bed for about two years but I made Ken wait until after my paper was published so it would be more of a reward.

Well, my paper was published 9 months ago so when we both woke up with aching lower backs on Monday morning, we decided enough was enough. We met after work and tried a bunch of them out. Luckily, our sleep preferences are pretty similar and we decided on one within an hour. It is dreamy. Firm yet pillow top plus individually wrapped coils so you don't feel the other person move around at night. It was so comfortable that we didn't want to leave the store. I was lusting after it last night, dreaming about its pending arrival.

I am very excited for tonight.