Merry Rock'n'Rollin' Christmas

I love Christmas.  I'm like a little kid.  There is great excitement and anticipation trying to figure out (aka, trick people into telling you, aka, lawyering them) what gifts you're getting...I've gotten my mom a few times with this technique.  Now, it is even more exciting because of Coop and Cal.  They still don't fully get it yet, but it is still a lot of fun with them.  It was great to see Coop's reaction as we came around the corner this morning to see it big present.  It wasn't quite what I expected; I'm not sure he knew what to think or what was going on, but it was still priceless.

Coop and Cal must be worn out as they are napping.  Momma's getting ready for the day, and I'm currently prepping Christmas lunch.  It's a little departure from what we decided would be our "traditional" Christmas meal a few years back, but that kind of happens when you squeal into town on Christmas eve and need to do some grocery shopping before the store closes with no idea of what you really need.  This year, we will be having prime rib, loaded mashed potatoes, fancy green bean thingy, rolls, and red velvet cake.  I hope it tastes as good as it smells.

No white Christmas for us; more of an ice Christmas.  From the way it looks though, some of those back in the motherland are having a white Christmas.  Sounds like fun.  I've got a snowblower you guys can use and lot's of snow gear, but you'll have to come get it.

It is about time for me to hit the shower, but here's a little Christmas video for you.

Story Time

After a whirlwind trip, we arrived back in town just around 5 p.m. Christmas Eve.  We didn't get home until closer to 5:45 or so, because we had to stop by the Walmart to get some groceries.  I had thought about posting this story last night, but there were cars to unload, kids to bathe, presents to wrap...you get the point.  The last blog teased of a story.  Face-to-face ones have been done with great reactions.  I'll leave out some of the details for you and get more to the point.

Before Thanksgiving, the basement toilet clogged up.  No big deal, right?  Wrong!  All the usual stuff didn't work.  I did move it from a clogged toilet to a slow draining one with clean water in the bowl, so I left it that way for our failed Thanksgiving trip.  The drain continued to drain slowly but seemed a little improved.  Because of its location, I didn't want to do a lot of work on it after the kids went down for fear of waking Cal up.

A Tuesday afternoon, I came home early knowing the kids would be at the sitter for a while.  My mission: to fix the toilet, whatever it took.  More plunging.  More snaking.  Still nothing would work.  I had already decided to remove the stool if you I needed; maybe the actual pipe was severely stopped up.  I was prepared for the worst, but not this worst.  Save some details, shortly after removing the stool I discovered the real problem and proceeded to pull out a huge rodent from the stool.  There are no pictures because of safety and time concerns of having to clean, take pictures, reglove, clean, take pictures, reglove, etc.  That thing had to be at least 5 pounds of more.

The best I can tell is that this sewer rat was in the sewer system, chose our toilet to try to live that lifestyle behind, and was too big to make it out.  Needless to say, he either drowned or suffocated.  It was all nasty.  And now, I look twice and still am a little uneasy when I use the basement bathroom; but at least you can now say, "Hey, I know a guy..."

Projects?

Does putting up the Christmas tree count as a home project?  If so, I should have updated a while back.

There are several small projects around that need to be tackled but I/we keep finding ways to put them off.  I had originally planned on doing some of them over the Christmas break but that probably won't happen now.  Due to the failed Thanksgiving trip, we're making one over this break.

I did finally get around to a project this earlier this week that I kind of wish I had done a few weeks back.  Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on who you are, there are no pictures of this project.  I didn't really think about taking pictures during the project and it would have made it longer and posed a bit of a safety issue.  Does that peak your interest?  I hope so because you'll have to wait a week or two to hear about it.  There are a couple of people who read this blog that I want to tell in person before they read it here so I can see their faces.

Random Thoughts

I really don't know what to do with this blog as there are no major projects currently underway.  The few minor projects are mainly organizing and decorating/redecorating the kid's rooms.  This is turning out to be a slower process than I had hoped.  The basement project was easy to work on while they were asleep, but its probably not a good idea to work in their rooms after bedtime.  Oh well, it may be Christmas break before it gets finished, but eventually it will be finished and pictures will flow.

This blog was started as an easy way to keep our parents up-to-date on the basement, but it has been shared with a few others.  Just so you know, most of my posts are not thought out and are free flowing.  I also normally do not check for grammar and such.  So, when you see grammar mistakes, I probably know they are there but am not going to fix them.

I may try to post weekly randomness on here, or keep this site pure and start another for that...who knows?

It's starting to turn cold here and I'm hoping that the snow waits until we return from the motherland in a few weeks.  Then bring it on!

Curtains

Here are some pictures of the curtains.  I know I said last week I'd get Calleigh's posted.  When I went to upload them, they weren't there.  Apparently, I hadn't taken them yet.  But it's all good because now I have the ones from her room and the guestroom.  Special thanks to Christi's mom for helping us out with these.

Curtain and Decorating

If you haven't noticed, the updates are slowing down.  I think that's a good thing.  To me, it means either 1) projects are being completed; or 2) I've become lazy and quit working on them.  I'm going with the latter.

Christi's mom completed the curtain for Calleigh's room Saturday and it's been hanging in there ever since.  I have pictures and will post them later, hopefully this evening.  That's about all that's been done as of late.  The process of cleaning out her closet, which had become a resting place for items without a home, is still in process.  Unfortunately, even that small job seems to be caught in the web of inter-relatedness.  It is turning out that we need to clean/organize a little bit in one room to make space for junk from another room so we can start on yet another room to find a permanent resting place for items.  Did you catch all of that?

Hopefully, the kids will be good this weekend and their nap schedule will let us do a little more work in Calleigh's room and get some things hung.

We do have the final pieces of trim in hand and I hope to get those installed, as well as the door hung properly before the end of November.  If not, I'll take care of it during Christmas break. 

The third bay of the garge still needs to be cleaned out.  It's starting to turn colder here, so maybe that will be motivation to get it done.  I kind of find it funny that one's it sort of cleaned up, I'll probably just be filling it back up with junk to make the cleaning/organizing process inside the house easier.  I didn't realize how much junk we had until we starting the basement project and lost what had become a catchall junk room.

Calleigh's Room Color

Saturday, we took a trip to the pumpkin patch and ran a few errands in Lincoln since we were there.  We picked up some fabric for the curtains for the guestroom and Cal's room.  Christi's mom will be making these during her stay.  We also grabbed that last few corner pieces needed to finish the trim in the guestroom.  At some point, I realized I forgot to pick up new hinges for the small door to the furnace area, but can grab those in town.  I may have to trim the door a little more on the sides to make it fit correctly, but that shouldn't be a big deal.

I had thought it would be possible to get both coats of paint on the walls in Calleigh's room Saturday night, but we didn't quite get back in time to do so.  Painting the ceiling was necessary in there, but not fun by any stretch of the imagination.  We have also discussed that we either need to quit getting Dutch Boy samples or pick up small containers of paint to put on the wall before making decisions.  The "crisp lettuce" color on the wall matches up to the sample but doesn't quite look like we thought it would on the wall.  It doesn't look bad, just not what what we were really expecting.  I think it will look really good once we get around to finishing up the room.

The Projects Continue

Calleigh's room just received its second coat of paint...Crisp Lettuce.  First coat went on late Saturday evening, and second after church today.  Pictures will follow after it dries some.

The Big Reveal

The pictures are not as clear as I wished.  Apparently, wiping the camera lens with your t-shirt is not sufficient enough.  I had typed out some dialogue here, but erased it because I 'm pretty sure all of you just want to see pictures at this point.  Enjoy.

Coop preparing for a sleepover.

That's a "Fender" sticker in the window.  It fit in great when the door was leading to the music room; not so much now.   The door fits in much better here.  It's not going to painted or anything because it has character.  The same goes for the door leading to the storage room.  At some point, I should probably show you a picture of that as well.

What An Exciting Weekend!

If you read the last post, you may remember that I said something about taking a long nap.  Well, I did.  Basically, I went to bed Thursday night and woke up Sunday morning!

My body must have known that the major work I need to accomplished was finished and shut down on me.  By the time I finished the last post and got up to bed, I had a raging fever.  I was so hot, it woke Christi up.  In the morning, she took my temp and it was 102.5.  There's been some discussion that she told me at one point it was 104 and I told her that was wrong.  I vaguely remember telling her it was wrong but not the 104 part.  She covered my first class Friday which had a guest speaker, Trooper McNeese...the State variety, not Storm...then while out getting some powerade and stuff for me, she ran into our friend who is a doctor's wife, Candi.  Candi told her it wasn't good for an adult to have that high of a fever for that long and to call the clinic, ask for Greg, and throw her name around if they wouldn't let her talk to him right away.

Christi called the clinic and spoke to a nurse.  Apparently, there was enough concern not to set an appointment; Christi was told to get me there as soon as possible.  Ten minutes or so later, we were in the waiting room.  The only symptoms were high fever and a few body aches that I attributed to sleeping too much.  They did a lot of tests that seemed out of the ordinary too me...blood, urine, and a chest xray (probably due to the late spring semester pneumonia).  My least favorite test revealed the answer...strep throat.  At first, a prescription was going to be issued, then the doctor changed his mind to a shot because it would work quicker.  I guess it's a good thing Christi threw in a question about the kids.  When the nurse came in to give me the shot, she said she thought the doctor was crazy ordering a strep test, especially since I didn't have a sore throat.  It has been a little sore since then, but not much.

Now, it's Sunday morning and I am feeling much better, though not quite back to normal I'll take it.  Needless to say, the house is still a mess and visitors will be here in 6 or so hours.  But like my daddy says, if you're coming to see the house and not me, don't come...right?

Christi has been great during all of this and probably has put herself in a bind to finish her paper by midnight tonight.  She cleaned up the stair room and decorated the guestroom Saturday morning.  Sarah (Ken's wife) came and got the kids for a few hours to help out too!  Got to love friends when family is so far away.  Hopefully, the kids will nap when they all get home from church so Christi can work on her paper.

Once I find out what sheets, etc., are to go on the bed, I'll make it up and take the final pictures of the room...for now.  The comforter want match the room, but who cares, the room is done!  Okay, I care a little, but not enough to worry about it right now.  So, if you are a die hard follower, check back in several hours to see the final pictures (and if you're not and they are already up, don't check back for pictures...just saying...A lot of these post would make more sense if you could hear them like I do in my head or if you really really know me and know how to read them like I would tell you...).

As much as I didn't/don't like the change in fall break, from two days at the end of the week to one day following homecoming weekend, having Monday off will be a lot of help right now.  Tuesday's classes might be a little short if I'm still tiring easily, but I'm sure my students won't mind.

Not To Be Left Out

Calleigh kind of helped too with a really important job...getting my coffee cup inside....eventually it made it.

The Second Problem and Solution

Score one for the Internet. the "surgery" work but took a little longer than expected.  I had hoped to not have to fully bend the box springs over; the goal as to bend it just enough to make the corner.  As you can see from the first picture, I ran into a little problem.  I'm pretty sure it's a gas line and I wasn't going to mess with it.  And things were going so smooth and quickly.  For a bit, I wasn't sure that I would be able to get it back up the stairs.  After some struggle, I finally got it bent over, tied, and down the stairs.  I meant to take some pictures of putting it together, but forgot.  That's really okay, because you might see to much of the finished room and ruin the big reveal in the next day or so.











After I put everything back together, I started cleaning out some of the stair room.  Christi was gracious enough to pick up the kids so I could keep working. I got a little extra help when they got home.

This will be much easier when he's taller.

We have about 2 1/2, maybe 3, days to finish pulling things together.  At this point, the plan is to get what we need out of the storage room, complete clean the stair room, and clear out enough of my music room for easy bathroom access.  After that just some general cleaning to prep for our first visitors to use the new guestroom.  We'll work on the other minor projects and clean up later in the week.

It feels good to be practically done and I think I might just take a nap this weekend and all day Monday!

The Solution

The Problem

The End Is Near!

Tuesday evening, I moved in one of the dressers that I could do by myself.  This evening Christi helped me move in the other one and attach the mirror.  I also moved in a newly cleaned chair.  I'm kind of excited to see what the carpet cleaner does on carpet!  The room is really starting to look nice.  We were both surprised that even with the furniture in there, it is still a huge room.

Save the things mentioned in the previous post, we are pretty much done.  Yippee!

What did we do before the Internet?  Today, I did a little searching for ideas about the box springs.  I found two options; neither of which I knew were options.  One sounds like a foldable box spring or is in two parts...I don't remember.  That is a viable option, but if you know me, at this point not a realistic one because I don't want to pay for something I don't need.  The second option, which is what we will try first, is to cut the box springs and fold it to get it in.

We picked up some brackets this evening and I'm going to give it a try Thursday afternoon.  It will still need to come in from the inside, but with the cut, we should be able to make the turn down the stairs.  Once inside, we unfold it and bracket it back together.  I may also put in some extra wood supports just to be safe.  If it doesn't work, I guess we will go with the other option.  Apparently, the cut and fold method is fairly common.  I assumed that it would mess with the integrity of the box springs, but apparently not.  I'll try to take some pictures of the process because I know you are as intrigued as I am.

Also, on Thursday afternoon and evening, I'll start cleaning it and trying to get the house back to normal.  With the garage starting to be cleaned out, I'll be able to put the extra wood in the third bay.  I'm hoping to be able to store it on the rafters so the third bay can be used for cars and, more likely, more junk.

I'm a little concerned where all of our stuff will go.  At some point in the near future, I hope to be able to clean and organize the actual storage room to make room for some of the extra junk and get rid of things we don't need/use.

95% and Holding

The guest room is about 95% complete and is in a holding pattern at this moment.  Nobody in town has the decorative corner pieces I need to finish up two pieces of trim.  Oh well, we'll pick those up next time we are in Lincoln.

The floor trim went up pretty quickly this afternoon.  The door trim went up pretty easily as well.  It doesn't look bad considering I didn't have a clue what I was doing.  Now, it just needs to be primed and painted.  Other things that still need to be done are touch-up painting and final adjustments to the pocket door.

At this point, the room is fully habitable, so we are going to concentrate on moving things in and trying to clear out/clean up the other rooms where stuff has been piled up for the last month or so.

I still don't know if the box springs are going to fit or not.  Tonight, we even removed the stairs to try to get it in to no avail.  I'm going to try from the inside again before we start looking for another option; although, we may really need to be looking for another option.

Once we get stuff in and arranged, I'll post some pictures...probably late this week.

I Can See The Light...Sort Of

Chuck, the inspector, came this afternoon to do his final inspection.  Not that I was surprised, but we passed.  All he did was walk around to the outlets, plug a tester in, and say, "that's good."  He was just checking to make sure I hooked up the wires correctly.  Funny, since we discovered in the process Sunday that the previous owners wired a lot, if not all, of them backwards.  At one point, Chuck said, "I thought you were going to put one on this wall."  I showed him where it was and he, "Ah, yes for the TV."  So, I'm guessing that we have a family room and not a storage room.

We chatted a bit and I told him that in the next year or so we would probably frame in the affectionately known "stair room" and asked if we needed a permit.  He said no, unless we were going to do outlets.  Which I said probably not, then realized they are all in the ceiling and will eventually be covered by a drop ceiling.  He said if we wanted to rough it in just in case to call him and he come check it without charging us.

The plan was to install most of the trim before picking up the kids.  I put a second coat on the flipside of the door while waiting for Chuck.  Then, without thinking, I touched up some of the corner pieces for the trim, which meant I had to wait for most of it.  I got a couple of pieces installed and should be able to do the rest  Tuesday afternoon.

The "midget door" doesn't quite fit.  It's a little too late to go back and cut out the part of the frame that we intended to do in the first place.  No big deal, we'll just notch the bottom of the door a bit, and it should be good.  Ken's going to stop by tomorrow to help with out and some of the door trim.

This evening, I hung the door and it goes into the wall, so I guess it's right!  I also broke in the new carpet cleaner cleaning an old chair that we brought back from the motherland this summer.

All in all, it looks like this project should be "completed" Tuesday evening.  (There is still some old wiring to take down--more or less just to clean it up a bit--and some sort of sound dampening thingy and eventually a drop ceiling....looks like I have some research to do!).  Then, we can start moving stuff in and putting other parts of the house back together.  It will be nice to see the TV again in the music room and be able to come down and play music!

Surprisingly, I have fell over yet from the lack of sleep last night.  There was something else minor I was going to do have this update, but I can't remember.  Guess I'll watch a bit of TV, then off to bed.

Playing Catch Up, Part 4

It looks like I only took one picture during the carpet installation.  It also looks like leaving the camera downstairs and out during sanding wasn't the best idea.  I'll clean the lens later.  For the carpet to be our (I lost count) choice, it actually looks pretty good.

Playing Catch Up, Part 3

Playing Catch Up, Part 2

Playing Catch Up, Part 1

No commentary for now, just updated pictures in several posts.

I Can't Sleep!

What do you do when you have a project to complete and can't sleep?  You work on the project.  The only problem with that, at least for me, is that there are times when I am working that I feel like I could go on forever...so I didn't/haven't/won't do much.

Since I couldn't sleep, I decided to paint just a little.  Sunday afternoon, I applied the second coat to the door and very early Monday morning, I applied the first coat to the other side.  This way, when I come home in the afternoon, I can do the second coat and, hopefully, hang the door Monday night.

Overall, Sunday was productive and time-consuming.  All the outlets, switches, and lights are hooked up and working.  Ken and I also laid the carpet.  Monday afternoon will include one more trip to the hardware store to pick up some 1x4s for the door trim.  After that, I will get as much trim installed as I can before supper; what I don't get up, will probably have to wait until Tuesday afternoon, as the equipment might be a little noisy for little sleeping ones.

Look for new (and old) pictures late morning or early afternoon.  I kind of want to do it now, but I'm afraid that I'll never go to sleep if I start.  Since I can only post 5 in each post, expect several updates later today.

What A Weekend!

Friday afternoon's adventure got off to a little later of a start than planned.  Christi needed to finish up some stuff for her grad work and the kids played so hard with Amber that they had to have a bath before I would take them anywhere...both for the dirt and the smell.  Ah, good times.

We headed out around 4, stopped at Cracker Barrel around 5, and made it to Menards around 6.  We grab about 5 or 6 carpet samples and picked up trim.  We got home around 8 and got the kids ready for bed.  After they went down, Christi and I looked at the samples in the room.

We left about 8:30 Saturday morning heading back to Lincoln.  We all went and took two cars.  The kids opted to ride with Christi so they could watch Scooby Doo in the car.  It ended up be a much longer day than I anticipated.

Menards was either out of or did not have enough of our first two choices.  I think the third choice we made in the store also did not have enough for what we needed.  Nevertheless, we finally picked one that they had plenty of and now have carpet.  We picked up a few other things there before heading off around town.  What we thought would be thirty minutes was more like an hour and a half.  The kids were pretty fussy on the way over, so after loading up the carpet in the Suburban, we decided to leave it at Menards and do the rest of our running around in one car.  The good news is that the carpet we picked was on sale for 59 cents a square foot--not too shabby.

A trip to Raising Cane's, a consignment store, Target, and TJ Maxx followed.  We picked up a few things for the kids and a few goodies for us.  We also came home with a carpet cleaner, which probably just means more work!  Needless to say, after a trip like today, I am in no hurry to head back to Lincoln.

This evening, I have painted the door and trim.  Now that I'm cleaned up, I remember that I forgot a spot...oh well, it will be hidden by the door.  I had planned on scraping the floor a bit (to remove drywall mud, etc.) but the trim is kind of in the way.

Hopefully, Sunday afternoon, we will be able to get the new electric hooked up and fired up and get the carpet down.  I plan on calling Monday for the final inspection; although, I got the permit/inspection bill today, so he may not need to come back.  The rest of the week will include a few minor finishes and moving in furniture and stuff.  I'll try to get pictures loaded to the computer Sunday afternoon and post them during a test on Monday.

Third Coat Done

You got to love work and sitter schedules that let you come home and do some project work in the afternoons.  I finished up the third coat pretty quickly today.  There is still paint left, which will be good for any touch up that might need to happen.

Tonight, we will take some take some measurements for carpet.  Right now, the plan is to head over to Lincoln late Friday afternoon to pick up a door, trim, and look at carpet.  Hopefully, we can grab some samples.  Saturday, some portion of us will head back over and pick up the carpet.  Problem somewhere in between all of that, we will pick up trim paint too.  I'd like to paint the window trim before the carpet goes down.  I plan on laying the carpet then installing the trim, which I'll paint beforehand and just touch up the nail holes, etc.

Sunday afternoon, Ken and I plan on hooking up the new electric and laying the carpet.  That will give us about one week to get everything moved in and arranged before the first visitors.

This is a First

I just finished applying the second coat of paint to the new guestroom.  The color is growing on me.  Christi and I came down after work to check it out and to see if we need to change it.  It's kind of funny that she thought it would be lighter and I thought it would be darker.

Anyway, it looks like for the first time ever, I will be applying a third coat of paint.  I'll have to wait until it dries to see if it "really" needs it, but I don't think that will matter as I have an unopened gallon of paint.  We went to Walmart tonight to pick it up because I thought I'd end up needed a third to a half of it.  Guess, I was wrong as the 3/4 of the remaining 2nd gallon was enough.  It kind of makes sense since not as much is sucked up on the second coat.  At this point, what's another hour and a half of painting.

How's the color?

Right now, I cannot truly answer the question of how's the color.  When I went to bed last night, it was a little darker than the what it looked like in/on the can; however, I really didn't look this morning before I left the house.  I walked in there, but don't remember a thing.  Cooper decided to wake up at 4 this morning because all of his pacis had fallen out of the crib.  After a while, I went down to retrieve them for him and jumped up wanting to come sleep in our bed.  I told him "no," and he preceded to fuss for a bit.

About the time he calmed down, I started hearing a beep and was afraid it was coming from his room, which would equal not going back to sleep for any of us.  Fortunately, it was the carbon monoxide detector in the basement; don't worry, it was just the warning that the batteries are starting to die.  Unfortunately, he heard me (I think) and started to fuss again.  So, let's just say that it is a good thing I don't have an 8 o'clock class this semester since I got up at 7:50.

A college student is at the house watching the kids so Christi can catch up and get ahead on some of her stuff.  She forgot to look at it this morning too.  So, tonight will bring a trip to Walmart regardless of what we decide about the color.  If we change it, I need different paint; if we keep it, I need more paint for two coats.  This might end up being a third coater, but only time will tell.  The saga continues, but at least the end is in sight.

hmmm

I was with Christi when she looked at the last post with the colors.  I don't remember her exact words now, but they were something to the effect of, "Boy, that's light.  I thought the same thing at Walmart."  I really didn't notice when I scanned them, but upon open the cans, the color does appear lighter than what the samples showed.  It could be a lighting thing.

Nevertheless, the first coat of paint is on the walls.  Although, it could very well be that I just put a third coat of primer up and it was simply labeled paint.  It was pretty light in color going on...reminds of me of some of the 1960 era Mustangs that were baby blueish.  It appeared to be drying a little darker than the swipe on the can; I guess time will tell.  I'm going to stay up just a little longer to see if it gets any darker.  Tomorrow, we'll evaluate and decide if we need to change colors for it to be a little darker.

By the way, I am a painting genius.  No tape!  No drop cloth!  Yep, I'm good...it also helps when there is no flooring to covering or trim to be concerned with at this time.   But the way I'm telling it is I'm good.

Colors

The blue color will be the wall color and the trim will be the brown one.  The actual samples look a little different that the scanned images, but it gives you an idea of what to expect.

I picked up the last gallon of drywall primer Walmart had; it has a different number for the white color, but it should make too much of a difference as the walls will receive multiple coats.  Plus, it looks like they are changing things up with Colorplace brand paint, so it may actually be the same, but I didn't take time to compare them.  If all goes as planned, the primer will be dry and ready for some color later this evening.  Now, if I can only find that camera.

Monday's Accomplishment

Monday evening's goals were accomplished...for the most part.  The walls have primer on them, but I'm going to do a second coat of primer this afternoon because it didn't cover as well as I would like.  One wall basically is already second coated because I went back over it instead of pouring paint back into the can last night.  There will be no pictures of this part because, now, I don't know where I put the camera.  Hopefully, it's just upstairs somewhere.

Right now, I'm thinking I'll skip out on the last hour of my office hours for the day, pick up another gallon of primer, and head home to prime.  I hope they have some as this weekend we picked up the last two gallons.  I'll need to read the directions, but it is entirely possible that color could start appearing on the walls tonight.  Christi and Cal may go pick that up while Coop and I are at 'nastics (for those that don't speak Coop-ese, that gymnastics), and if the primer is dry enough, I'll start painting tonight.

This Week's (Hopeful) Schedule

Of course, all of this is somewhat dependent on what I get done at the office today and other days, and how the kids are at night, but this is what we are shooting for this week:

Monday - finishing sanding, mainly around outlets that needed more mud; start priming (hopeful to complete it!)
Tuesday - kids at sitter until 5, so I can get a few extra hours in the afternoon.  Finishing priming if necessary; 1st coat of paint; It is possible that I could finish the first coat, do the kid stuff (gymnastics, etc.) and apply the second coat late that night (or I could just watch TV)
Wednesday - finishing painting if necessary
Thursday - dinner with the board (why me!); project wise--not sure yet
Friday & Saturday - not sure yet

Later in the weekend or this weekend will include a trip or two to Lincoln.  We need to pick up the door, which will need to be painted, as well as flooring.  As of right now, we have not completely decided on flooring.  Originally, we were going to use some really cool concrete floor stain.  However, this past week, we started talking carpet, after Ken and Sarah picked up theirs.  It has the padding attached, doesn't need to be stretched, and goes down with carpet tape.  This wasn't in our original plan because of cost, but we may be changing our mind for two reasons: 1) time (and little prep); with the stain, besides the application time, there is the drying time, etc.; and 2) we are not exactly sure yet, but preliminary numbers are looking like the carpet is not going to be a whole lot more expensive than the floor stain.

Keep your fingers crossed; hopefully, by the time the weekend is over, we can basically scratch this project, save a few minor things done later (i.e., sound barrier, drop ceiling), of the list.  The only down side I see in finishing this project is that we will need to come up with another reason for our messy house....suggestions?

Prime Time

Looks like we are getting closer folks.

Saturday, I installed the window trim and did a little sanding.  This afternoon I caulked and did a little more sanding.  I had to mud a couple of places too.  I haven't checked on them since finishing, but will sand them tomorrow evening and start priming barring any unforeseen circumstances.

I could probably start tonight, but considering I have some work for work to finish before my first class Monday, I thought I'd better do that instead.  Which means I should probably not be posting an update right now too, huh?

It looks like we have chosen colors.  In independent testing, Christi and I had the same choices out of the samples she picked.  I'll try to get those scanned in a few days so you can see what to expect.  The pictures I keep promising are coming too; I have misplaced the card reader (which isn't hard to do right now around here).  Once I locate it, I'll post some new pics and play catch up.

Back to work on my real job.  I'll try to update Monday between classes to let you know what the plans for the week are looking like.  Until next time....

Getting Closer

Wednesday night, I finished sanding and even wore a mask this time.  The result was much better for me.

Thursday afternoon, I started the (hopefully) final coat of mud.  I wasn't able to finish in time to go get the kids, so I got back to it after they went to bed.  I used a different type of mud this time, which seemed to be a little easier to work with...or I'm finally getting the hang of it.

With a little luck, it will all dry pretty quickly and the next round of sanding can be knocked out pretty fast. I'm still hoping to be able to prime Sunday evening.

Christi hasn't been down since the mudding started, but she will soon to pick colors.

Hopefully, in the next few days, there will be lots of good news to report.

My Nose Still Feels Funny

After last night's post was done, I realized I didn't explain the funny nose part in the title.  You are really supposed to wear a mask when sanding drywall.  Well, as you can imagine, I did not.  I looked around the garage, but had apparently used them all a while back.  It was too late to head out for some new ones and I want to get this project done, so I forged on without one.  I tried to use a bandana to help keep dust out of my nose, but that didn't work as well as I had hoped.  Needless to say, my nose still feels funny today and I have a little bit of a headache...presumably from the dust.  This afternoon/evening will include a trip to the store for tonight's escapades.

Oh, Tuesday and My Nose Feels Funny

Tuesday's been pretty good.

I decided earlier in the day to not attempt to fix the water leak during the 3 -5 period and wait until after gymnastics.  I'm not really sure I remember (or even knew) how to sweat the copper lines properly.  If I ran into a problem, we'd be without water for several hours.  So, I chose to wait and have Ken come help.

When Ken gets here, I pull copper pipe out of the garage and says, "Oh, you MEAN the water line."  We started checking things and it confused him that the copper was linking, unless there was a coupler we couldn't see.  The leak appeared to be hidden between the bottom of the cabinet and the floor.  He started checking around and seems to think it is from the sprayer.  We have hard water which sometimes clogs up the sprayer (and shower heads and makes the toilets hard to clean and...well, you get the picture).  When the sprayer gets clogged just right, it doesn't release all the way and dribbles a little.  It looks like water is running down the hose onto the pipes and leaking down.  We've basically laid it over into the sink and are going to keep a watch on it.  Christi did the dishes and I haven't noticed any leaks.  Needless to say, I felt like an idiot.  Ken kept reassuring me that I wasn't, that it looked like a pipe was leaking, and the only way he knew to look for that was that it happened to him before.  Looks like the next trip to Lincoln we'll be picking a new and better sprayer.  (Yes, we can get them in town, but they aren't very good and don't last too long.)

Ken also looked at my drywall work and said it was looking good and gave a few suggestions.  I spent about 1 1/2 hours sanding tonight.  Wednesday, I'll start again.  I'm thinking I have about another 2 hours of sanding to go.  The new corner pieces still aren't dry enough to work on either.

The current goal is to finish sanding Wednesday night, apply the fourth, and hopefully, finally coat of mud (except maybe the corner pieces) Thursday afternoon, and do the final sanding Friday or Saturday (or Sunday), depending on dry time.  I'll also head over to Ken's later in the week and probably Saturday to help him some with his projects.  If we're lucking, I hope to prime the walls Sunday or Monday.  Guess we need to get busy on picking out some colors, huh?

More Corner Pieces and Mud

I got back to work tonight.  Christi is feeling somewhat better and plans on going to work tomorrow.

Last night, I realized that I might need to put up some more corner pieces.  I texted Ken about it and he said it would look better.  I'm not really sure why I keep forgetting about those pesky corner pieces.  These were for the "midget door" giving access to the furnace.  This is a small, old door that is currently attached to the music room that will soon have a new home.  I guess the music room will be getting a real door too.  I'm not really sure why the midget door is there and its actually kind of funny.

Anyway, all the corner pieces in the new guestroom are installed and mudded.  I also put a third coat of mud on most of the wall.  I need to sand and trim the mud around the other corner pieces so I can smooth out the new mud.

Tonight I was thinking (I know dangerous) and remember a few weeks ago.  While helping Ken install some drywall in his house, he said, don't worry mud covers a multitude of sins.  Tonight, I could help but wonder what will cover my mud sins.  For someone who doesn't have a clue what he's doing, I don't think it looks too bad.

I have also come up with a name for the new guestroom...more on that another time.

Sunday night, I thought I discovered the source of the water leak.  This afternoon, I checked more into it and found out I was wrong.  It appeared to be the drain pipe; however, the rag I wrapped around it was dry this afternoon.  After further inquiry and testing, I discovered it is the water line to the kitchen sink.  It looks like the actual leak is between the floor of the cabinet and the floor.  We have a temporary solution in place...we're not using the kitchen sink right now.  Tuesday, I'll cut out a section of the pipe and put a new section in.  I haven't decided yet if I'll do it tomorrow afternoon while the kids are at the sitter or wait until a little later so Ken can come over and make sure I don't screw anything up.  Either way, it probably needs to be fixed Tuesday or we'll have to wash dishes in the tub.

If all continues to be good this week and no crazy nights need to do work for work, I should be able to get things finished up and start priming/painting by the end of the weekend.

No (Project) Work Weekend

The weekend has come and gone and the basement project looks pretty much the same as it did Thursday evening.  Don't worry, it will still be completed by the time is has to be done, but some of the other smaller projects will have to wait.

Christi is still sick and hasn't seen a whole lot of improvement over the weekend.  Because of some of the side effects, she is only taking some of her meds at night.  She's going to call Monday to see if there is something else she can take.

The kids and I have had a pretty good weekend fill with multiple trips to Walmart and the Yorkfest parade on Saturday.  I have a few pictures of them at the parade that I will get up in the next few days.

Christi is upstairs working on her homework that is due by midnight; hopefully, she can stay awake long enough to finish it.  I am downstairs about to work on the test for my first class tomorrow.  I started hearing a drop while doing this update.  I really should take a picture of how I'm set up right now because I'm sure its pretty funny looking but the camera is upstairs.  I thought I may have knocked something off/over and it was dripping...which if you saw the set up you could see why I thought that was a possibility.  Well, that isn't the case and apparently I have a slow drip from a pipe.  I've isolated the general area but nothing else yet.  It's going to be real interesting trying to get in a position to look since you can barely get in the room as it is.  It appears that it is relatively recent, plus, I didn't hear it the other night when I was down here.  For now, I'm going to do my test, then try to find the source of the drip.

Odds are I won't be able to fix it tonight, but I will do what I can to minimize it for the time being.  What was looking to be an earlier night is slowly turning otherwise.  I guess it is a good thing that I wasn't able to get away to the office to take care of the test earlier this weekend.  Guess I better get to work.

No Work Tonight

Christi isn't really any better today and in some ways felt worst.  I decided not to do any work so I can get in bed at a decent time to get up with the kids in the morning and let her sleep in.  It kind of works out well as I just check the corner pieces and there are a few areas where the mud is not completely dry.  Either I put it on too thick to begin with or it needed a lot to do the first coat right.  If you're keeping score, I'm going with the latter.  If you're not keeping score, I'm still going with the latter.

Saturday will include a trip downtown with the kids for the Yorkfest parade.  After that, who knows what the day will have in store.  Hopefully, it will work out to get a little more done.

Now, it's on to a little TV, then bed.

Sanding Started

Did I make a mess this afternoon or what?  I came home a littler early today and started sanding.  I got most of it done before I need to shower and do a few small things before picking up the kids.  The corner pieces are not yet dry, so they'll still need a second coat of mud then sanding.  I hopefully can get the second coat on Friday evening and put the third coat on what has already been sanded.

My mudding job isn't quite as bad as I thought it was but my skills still have a long way to go.  I still have the screw holes to finish up too, which I'll probably work on tomorrow night.  Depending on how things go, I might be able to finish up with this part by Monday or Tuesday...we'll see.

I guess I could really do some of these things now, but I don't want to change, get all dirty, clean up tools, clean up myself, etc. again.

Christi hasn't been feeling for about a week now and we were thinking it was allergies.  That's a plausible theory for this time of year.  She went to the doctor today.  I don't know that he gave her a real diagnosis, but she's has a lot of little things going on for which she received a plethora of medicine.  She did mention an ear infection as well as the other stuff.  She actually came home early today because of some of the side effects.  The kids were pretty good this evening letting her rest on the couch.  So, I guess some of what I can get done in the next few days depends on she's feeling.

Hopefully, before the weekend is over, we will get around to picking colors for the walls and floor and figure out how we are going to refinish some furniture that will go in the new room.

The Art of Lying

Some people equate lawyers with liars (and other bad things...like the preacher this weekend who said to me, "Oh, you're one of those weasels."  And, yes, I politely told him how wrong he was and that criminals had rights too...And, yes, Christi has already gotten onto me for that, so you don't have to too.)  Anyway, if you see my mud job, just lie about and tell me how great it is.  Don't worry that because of teaching criminal justice I have done some studying on the subject and how to detect it; I'll give you some pointers beforehand if you need them.

I concede that my mudding is horrible, at least in my opinion.  I tend to get one part looking really good, then mess it up working next to it.  Hopefully it is all salvageable and you won't be able to tell when it is all finished.  This is probably the worst part of the project.  May be next time, I'll budget to pay someone to do the mudding and such.

Regardless, the corner pieces are installed and mudded.  Thursday afternoon, I'll start sanding.  There is still a chance, albeit a small one, that we will be able to start painting this weekend.  However, thinking more realistically, it will probably be mid-week or so before we are ready for painting.  That's okay, painting won't take too long to do and I kind of like doing it.  It's still looking like we should be finished by the end of the month...then on to something else.

Here are the missing pictures...

Mud Round 2

Tuesday afternoon, round 2 of the mud went up.  I can honestly say that I am awful at it.  I have no idea if its good or not; guess I'll find out when I start sanding and such.  My hope is that if its really bad, I can sand it all off and start over.

I still have to install a few corners pieces and mud them, which I'm hoping to do this evening.  Christi's sickish, so that might keep things from working out.  I think she's faking it to slow me down to only work when she can help out.  Of course, keeping up with my real job might slow me down too, especially since I don't an update instead of prepping for class right now. 

The current goal/objectives for this evening are: 1) install the corner pieces 2) mud them and 3) clean out the room so sanding can start tomorrow afternoon.  I will also be formulating a plan to trick Ken into coming over and doing all the mudding and sanding for me. 

I tried to post some pictures yesterday of my superior mudding technique and a few other things.  For some reason, this blog thing would find the pictures that I uploaded.  I'll try again later...

No Work Monday

I didn't do any work on the basement Monday, which may put us behind just a tad.  I checked the mud around 3:30 and it wasn't completely dry.  It might have been after the kids went to bed, but I didn't go back down.  I probably should have at least cleaned up the room to save time when it comes to sanding.  However, I chose the option to go to bed early. 

Today's plan is to go home after my office hours and put the second coat of mud up.  Hopefully, I can get it all done and clean up before I pick the kids of from the sitter.  If things work out, I can maybe start sanding Wednesday night.  At this point, while still possible, I'm starting to think we won't be ready to paint until sometime next week.  It kind of depends on drying time, how long sanding takes, and how many times I mess things up.

I HAVE A BLISTER!

Today was a pretty good day.  Columbus went well and we had a good time with friends.  The only downside was that Menards did not have the door we wanted in stock.  A couple of their Lincoln stores have plenty, but that wasn't exactly on the way home.  Unfortunately, it looks like a trip to Lincoln is in store later this week....but now that I think of it, I could just wait until we are ready to do the floor and pick up the door at the same time as that stuff....hmm, I may be on to something here.

The first round of mud is pretty much complete.  There is one very small place I still have to do.  It is where the door is to access the furnace area.  I just put the drywall there tonight and totally forgot about it until I started cleaning it.  It can wait and shouldn't slow us down too much.

I probably should have wore gloves as I have a blister from mudding.  I just thought my hand was hurting from the tool rubbing against it, which I guess it actually was.  Oh well!

Things are really starting to come together.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to post some pictures, but for now I think its bedtime.

Productive Day and Other Stuff

Did you know Bobby Bowden is out at Florida State?  I didn't know that until Thursday night while is was being interviewed on ESPN while checking out part of the Auburn game.  I bet he would be fun to hang out with for a little while.  Speaking of Auburn, just found out last week Tommy Tuberville  is coaching at Texas Tech.  I think he got a raw deal, but nobody asked me.  I don't really follow sports that much so maybe that is why I didn't know these things; but I do know Alabama is about to beat Penn State.

Okay, back to the real blog.  Today was very productive.  After breakfast, I started finishing putting up the insulation.  It took a little longer than I had hoped due to having to cut and piece together a lot of it (i.e., around windows and other places that were shorter in height or not 16" studs.  When I was almost done with that, Ken texted to see if it was drywall day.  We hadn't talked about it, but he was game.

I made a quick trip to the hardware store to pick up some more corner pieces since I forgot about a few areas yesterday.  I made up for the miscount this time and counted to many, but I'll probably hang on to them for the next project, whatever that is.

Ken had some issues getting lumber he needed today.  While waiting for him, I started on the drywall.   I started the first piece in the wrong corner, but that was a pretty easy fix.  I attempted to put the top piece on by myself and dropped it twice.  After the second time, I just moved on to another wall and started on the bottom piece.  I still don't know how Ken has put up so much drywall by himself...he's just crazy or more experienced and knows how to not let it slip off the wall.

Nevertheless, after about 4 hours, the room is now (virtually) drywalled and taped.  There is one little area in front of the furnace that still needs to be done.  We just forgot about it because we originally were going to cut the floor plate out where the door while be, but have decided to just leave it as is.  That will make sense once you see the door that we are using.  I'll take care of that tomorrow evening and hopefully start mudding.  There are also a couple of corner pieces that I'll probably take care of Sunday evening as well.

We still have to install the new light fixture and hook up the new power to the room.  Instead of cutting power and moving stuff around today (which would probably mean no lights in the room), we just removed the outlets and light switch from their current location and now they are laying on top of the freezer.

Here's some pics of what it is looking like.