This Is My First and Only

I have one kid. He is my first and my only. And he is a drama queen. What's that? I can't have a box of smarties when I first get up? I should probably throw myself on the floor and cry about that. What's that? I can't drink your cup of coffee? I should probably throw myself on the floor and cry about that. What's that? I need to put on pants before leaving the house? I should probably throw myself on the floor and cry about that. Oh yes. This all happened before we left the house at 10.30. And we don't get up early. This is approximately 45 minutes of time. The morning continued in this fashion. 

I have heard of a phenomenon called "the terrible two's". I hope this is it. I know he's not two yet. But sometimes, so I've heard, they come early... or late or at some time other than two. Two just was a good number to put "terrible" in front of. I can take this. If the terrible two's are worse than this, however, mama's gonna get herself a job and Caedmon is going to get himself a daycare. Beware daycare workers. Beware.

But honestly. I don't like being that person who says "no" all day. It's tiring and not fun and doesn't make one feel like all that good of a mom. But I suppose being a mom means not always being your child's favorite person and having to say "no" once in a while? Or more than that? And not decorating for Christmas. Because this: 

turns into this:

(To be fair it was probably the cat. I'm not actually sure. I was just trying to make a point.)

I'm sorry mom. For all the times I didn't listen. For all the times "no" seemed mean, but probably wasn't. For all the times you had to say it repeatedly because I thought I knew best. But thank you too. Because I think I maybe turned out ok. And I wouldn't blame most of the imperfections on you anyway... a couple of them maybe, but not most. 

Umm... do you remember this? It's my blog.

So... its been a long time. A long, long time. Like August. Crazy. Josh went away to school for 7 weeks in September and October. He decided since he had to leave home he deserved the computer. It was probably a fair decision, but it did leave me computerless. Which isn't too sad, since smartphones, but I was not going to blog on my phone. My level of dedication is not that high. Recently, I have been asked when I was going to post... only more subtly like as in... "so you haven't posted in a while" which is definitely an understatement. I read between the lines. Here I am. Posting. Since I don't have anything to actually post about here are some small paragraphs of jumble:

So Josh is home. That is nice. You kinda miss having your husband, partner in parenting, cuddler, tv mate, make exaggerated faces to silly things when you aren't allowed to talk person around. As in a lot. But he's home now. And working on the house. Which is an added bonus. Plus he shovels our walk/drive way which is nice. Also, he goes to work to help feed us. It is nice having him home.

It is the Christmas season.  I know this because I've been invited to 3? parties to celebrate Jesus's birthday already. We know he must be an important guy because he gets a lot of parties. That's nice. I wish I had 3 parties on and around my birthday. But I would probably have to plan and prepare for them all so it wouldn't be as wonderful. Friends: think about doing this for me next year. But seriously. Jesus is important and sometimes it's so much fun picking out presents and putting up pretty decorations and eating delicious food... and some more delicious food, and spending time with family that I forget that. I'll try not to this year.

I bought Brave. I can't wait to watch an entire movie with Scottish accents. I'm actually tempted to not wait for Josh. But that would be mean, so I will. I think we'll have an in front of the tv meal tonight. Just because I'm so excited. Plus her hair is incredible. Have you seen 'How to Tame Your Dragon'? You should. It's really good. And the adults all have Scottish accents... but the kids for some reason have North American accents. Which is kinda of funny, but I didn't think about it the first couple times I watched it. Apparently everyone is born with North American accents and just kind of grows into their respective countries accent. Just kidding. It is just silly. Maybe everyone they paid to to the children's voices was as bad at Scottish accents as I am. I'm hoping watching this movie will improve that. Then Josh won't laugh at me when I try. He's good at it. It makes me giggle in a not making fun of him way.

Caed is bigger. Crazy bigger. He is getting big too fast. It's fun and wonderful and sad. He's a cool kid.

We got a cat. We adopted her from the Brooks Animal Protection Society? BAPS anyway. They brought her to Medicine Hat. I actually had a different kitty picked out. But this one stole my heart with her pretty orange coloring in her black fur and her sweet eyes. We named her Copper. She's a lot of fun. Clearly a kitten, with her crazy antics, but she's also incredibly cuddly. Caed loves playing with her. She must not mind him much either because she sleeps with him lots of the time. We like her.

That is all.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles, minus the whole train part.

Because I'm sure you've all been waiting and as unable to sleep as I was... WE MADE IT! Alive and with minimal tears or distraughtedness... Caed was actually really, really wonderful. He is clearly the angel I always made him out/thought him to be. Also, I believe he lives his life attempting to prove me wrong. Maybe this helps the illusion. Ever behaving when I think he won't. (We won't mention the times when he loses it at the grocery store or in church.)

He slept for less than half of the trip to Calgary, making the drive seem a bit long. Smarties saved the day. One smartie every five minutes makes a boy happy and gets him through long car rides. Thank you Nestle. 

He ran around the airport for an hour. Our plane was late because of the storm, but that was actually nice because it meant more running around. The take off made him a little headachey I think, but it also made him sleep. 2 hours! Whoo! So dad and Caed slept and mom enjoyed a little peace and some book reading. When he woke up he discovered two adorable, sweet little girls behind us and entertained/was entertained by them. I'm sure in total they preoccupied him for an hour. He watched tv, read, snacked, played with toys, looked out the window, bounced on mom, we went for a walk and a diaper change. He only got upset a couple of times, and really, he didn't make too much fuss or noise. Amazing! Even the extra 20 minutes it took for our gate to free up upon arrival didn't seem horrible. I was so proud of him.

My kidlet is the best. That is all.

In Three Days.

In three days we are going to Ontario. We are taking this:

 (yes that is a hammer, and yes it's flying towards a window, and yes, his dad did grab him before the pictured motion was complete.) 

on  a 3 hour drive followed closely by a 4 hour plane ride. A one year old, energetic, little bit wild, boy sitting for 7 hours. 

Mama has a head ache.

He'll do his nap time on the drive. So that takes out 2 hours... 5 to go! I'm fairly sure the drive will actually be okay. He'll nap and sit and look out the window and we'll tell him it will all be over soon. 

Yes, we will lie. 

But it's only to keep everyone happy. And momentarily oblivious. 

We will then park and unpack our car, go for a short shuttle ride (which will be lots of fun because we can all sit on benches like grown ups) and spend an hour running around the airport. And when I say running, I fully intend it to be literally. We will run. If only to wear out the boy for a few, precious moments once we have boarded the dreaded flight. 

Dear Lord, please let this flight be empty, please let us get a row to ourselves and please, please let it be a flight full of understanding, sweet, deaf people who will not wish to strangle us, but only see his cuteness.

I have done research. We went and bought some little cheap toys and wrapped them up so he can open them throughout the flight. I have a baggy full of little snacks, all different so he can pick from a 'surprise bag' of treats. I bought head phones that are supposed to be comfortable for kids so he can watch tv/movies. I downloaded kid apps on my iPhone. We will take books. We will go for walks to the bathroom and smile at people. This will be ok. And even if it's horrible it will all be over in 4 hours. And it can't be horrible for the entire 4 hours. He has to be calm for at least a small portion of it. Right?.... Right?

Dear Lord, please let this flight be empty, please let us get a row to ourselves and please, please let it be a flight full of understanding, sweet, deaf people who will not wish to strangle us, but only see his cuteness.......

Dear Lord, please let this flight be empty, please let us get a row to ourselves and please, please let it be a flight full of understanding, sweet, deaf people who will not wish to strangle us, but only see his cuteness.......

Dear Lord, please let this flight be empty, please let us get a row to ourselves and please, please let it be a flight full of understanding, sweet, deaf people who will not wish to strangle us, but only see his cuteness........

Things I Learned Today

Our truck is not standard. This means, I do not need to use my left foot. Or look to shift gears. Using your left foot on the break you think is a clutch hurts. You only make this mistake once. Looking for the gear shifter is less painful and more embarassing, regardless of the fact that the only human watching you flail your arm aimlessly around is a one year old.

Also, if you feel like you're going 20 in the truck, you're probably going 50. And if you like you're going 50, you're probably going 100. Thank you police for not seeing me today. I did not mean to speed. That was nice of you.

When your baby is grumpy, you either do exactly what he wants or listen to him scream. Those are your only two options.

Your babies first knee scrape is more exciting than sad. He's a real boy! This also means he's growing up. But we won't get into that.

You always forget something when you go to costco. And by you I mean me.

Packing for a baby means you are taking three times as much stuff as you thought you would at first.

Make sure when you look for books online at the library, you make sure it's actually at the library you go to in your city. Otherwise you get sad.

This is all. It was a fairly uneventful day.

My baby got a car...

bed. It's a lot of fun. And super cute. I was a little sad to take down the crib. Just another, all to frequent, moment when I realize my baby boy is growing up. But I think it's good. He actually likes going for naps and bedtime now. He crawls up on it and looks at his books and we snuggle and then he sleeps. Without screaming. It's really nice. No more going to bed sad! For either of us! Wonderful.

This is the week that we decided to start cloth diapering. We thought about doing it when he was born. And again when he was out of his newborn diapers. And then we moved three times within 9 months, and I was so glad we didn't do cloth. I did not need one more load of laundry to do while packing up our little family three time and moving provinces and within cities and renovating houses and living with parents and moving into an almost finished house... you get the picture. Cloth diapering was tempting for two reasons - it's nice on the bank account (after the initial buying them) and it's nice to the  environment.

And then Fabric Land happened. They actually have the cutest POL fabrics of all time from a company called Babyville. Check it. They are adorable. So I broke out the sewing machine and made the plunge. Despite the initiate start up cost (the fabric isn't as super cheap as it is super cute... ) I figure that even if he's potty trained in the next 6 months it will be cheaper that disposable. Also if we eventually have mini-human #2 we will save TONS of monies. The diapers have snaps so they can do quite a few sizes, and lets face it, if the next babe is as big as this babe then I'll only need the two sizes (assuming they're potty trained before they need the biggest size... PLEASE LET THIS BE SO.) Also, I already do laundry 3 times a week. The extra laundry will make an extremely small difference in our lives.

Depending on where you buy the fabric (Walmart vs Fabric Land) and whether you use Velcro or snaps, and whether you get sucked in and buy the adorable applique they have, and if you buy the pre packaged or bulk and whether you do the cute elastic that shows or do a hidden elastic, I'm thinking it costs anywhere from 10-15 dollars per diaper, including the soaker. I could get out the receipts and do an actual total if anyone is interested. 

I'm making diapers that has 'pockets' to simply place the soaker in, as opposed to sewing the soaker into the shell to make an 'all in one'. (There are about 10 different types of diaper patterns they had in the book... let alone the cosmetic variations you can make.) I'm hoping this will allow me to use the shell two or three changes before it needs to be washed (the POL fabric can just be wiped for the most part), as the shell is what costs... the soakers are just flannel and some batting. Simple and cheap.

The first one I made is a little bit sad. But live and learn. The next two are so much cuter.

 #1

 #2 (Hidden elastic) 

#3 Adorable print, right?!

Before and After

Apparently I have been lazy and not written in a while. My husband was home a ridiculous amount last week, because when there is too much rain they can't work. It was really nice to have him around. Caed and I had lots of fun with him. Unfortunately the bank account does not feel the same way... but it was totally worth it.

We took numerous trips to the beach. Caed had tons of fun, the sun wore him out (and us) and we all look a little less white and feel a little more like summer is the best season.

Josh wasn't completely off work though, because when he's not doing his real job he has a wife at home to force him off the couch and to get at it. (Ok he's actually really good at getting things done and his wife often complains something along the lines of "but if you get off the couch, then I have to get off the couch and I just feel quite lazy." More often than not he gets off the couch anyway. Sad for lazy me.)

But our counters are sealed and shiny. This not only makes it look nice, but makes it easier/possible to clean them. We used an epoxy that not only sealed the counter tops, but leveled them and made them shiny. It was actually fairly easy to use (not that it was me who applied them...). We just scrubbed and sanded the counters, taped off areas we didn't want epoxied (the wall, sink, cupboard hardware), covered the floor, mixed the two containers together and applied with a paintbrush/sponge. They had to dry for 24 hours before we could use them. This was kind of inconvenient, but it had to be done, so we just sucked it up. And accidentally touched/put purses on them....

 Before.

 

After.

  Before.

 After.

The grout is also done on the tile back splash. I think it looks fantastic. I'm really happy with the tile I picked and the way it turned out. I would, next time, wait until someone was around to entertain my one year old. Grouting with a tiny human screaming and hugging your legs isn't as fun as you might think.

 Before.

After.

And the fence! Josh built a little fence with a gate on the drive way side of the house. And my little, I mean short, because it isn't a very big space. It is quite tall, however. It's a really great cedar fence. I like it a lot. It will keep my babe in, and provide a wind break for when I'm attempting to light the bbq. Lighting a bbq with a match is definitely not one of my strengths. Dumb clicker that stopped working. Give me a match, add a little wind (What? Wind? in Medicine Hat??? Crazy, I know.) and you get an Ashley waiting for her husband to come home so she can make supper/ he can make supper, because lets face it, he's already home and the man should bbq... at least at my house. He also built a gate on the other side next to the neighbors fence. Not all we need is the gate at the back that will go between my lilac hedges. So wonderful.

 Before.

 After.

After.

As for me, I've been cleaning my floor. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over........

Jodi Mae, my fabulous sister in law, brought me this back from Ikea. It's wonderful. We put it together that night. I like it so much. I fits a lot of our stuff (books, dvds, wii stuff). Functional and looks great. Thank you once again Ikea. And Jodi. :)

Counters and Backsplash.

We got lots done. Never enough though. But what we did looks gooooooood.

A bathroom fan. Important for stopping mildew and mold. Holmes would be proud. I'm sure of it. It's a pretty cool fan. Well actually the fan has been hooked up for a while, but it didn't have a switch. So I found some instructions and my dads hooked it up for me. You don't just turn it on. And by that I mean you don't just turn it on. When you turn it on you actually get to push a button - 2, 5, 10 or 15 minutes. How lovely. It just turns off after its time is up. Wonderful.

Dad also moved the plug for the microwave. And then Josh put a hole in the wall and we put the microwave up. Yay. A microwave. You don't realize how much you use one until you don't have one. And it's a lot. Heating stuff on or in the stove isn't always as tastey as it would be if it was just warmed up, instead of re-baked or fried. We did get good at not having a microwave. But now I don't have to be good at it anymore.

Next stop drier. 

I like hanging clothes on the line. I really do. But it's been raining a lot. And that means I should have done laundry earlier today, when it finally wasn't raining. But I didn't get it done in time, and now it's 10:00 in the evening and the laundry is still trying to dry out there. Now it's supposed to rain tonight. Blow, wind, blow! We also have clothes hanging all over the kitchen because there wasn't enough room on the line for two loads of clothing. Worst case scenario, it gets wet again. No biggie.

Counters and backsplash! Counters and backsplash! They're in. Almost. Well the counters are!! Yay. And most of the tile! Double yay. Totem only had 117 tiles. I needed 164. Thus, the tile is incomplete. And not grouted, because we need to wait until (1) it sets and (2) we put the rest of it up. But what is in looks great! I was worried about the counters, I'm not going to lie. I wanted them white, white. But the rock we used in mixing up the concrete was grey, and we thought it wouldn't show through. Then Josh grinded (is that really not a word?) it down. And the grey rock did show. I was sad. I thought it looked dirty. And it wasn't white, white. Thus, sad. 

Curtis came over today and Josh and him got the work out of a life time moving it in. Apparently 25.5 x 87 x 1.5 inches of cement is heavy. Really heavy. Really, really heavy. But I called them "muscles" so they got it in. And it looks really good! I'm so happy.

 Ignore the unfinished top row. Remember it was Totem's fault. Kind of looks like a real kitchen, doesn't it?!

 You can see my laundry drying. The cupboard knobs work really well for Caed's clothes. The prefect size.

 I snuck in a picture of Caed and Grandpa going to dig up the ant hill.

 I have under the counter lights (Go Dad!!!) That's what the wires under the cupboard is.

 Josh taking over the tiling while I took pictures.

My counter!!

I Never Told You What I Chose Because of You

So a while back, quite long back, I took a vote. I asked what I should do for bedroom light fixtures- pretty lights or ceiling fans. Ceiling fans won! I was actually a little bit sad. Practical didn't seem like as much fun. Sometimes when I'm on the Ikea website I'm still a little sad. I had great lights picked out. But the ceiling fans are in. And they are wonderful!!!! I don't know how we would sleep without them. Not only do they do their actual job really, really well- it feels great having the cool air blowing on you while you're sleeping. But they also work really well as white noise. Which is great when we put Caed to bed. Which is also great when I go to bed. (Recall that we live near the highway. When we're awake you don't notice it. When it's six in the morning and people with fast, noisy cars are trying to get to work *cough* my little brother *cough* * at 630 in the morning and I still have an hour and a half of sleep, the highway noise is noticed.)

Speaking of light fixtures, people have mentioned liking them, but no one has said anything along the lines of "hey, woman, do you realize that you have 5 different types of light fixtures that I can see while sitting in this one chair?" That's right, no one cares! 

Hmm. What else can I tell you? Caed's room is almost completely put together. A wonderful improvement from last post. We just need to fix the shower so we can finish his closet. Then the costco sized diaper and wipes boxes can go in there. And he can hang his clothes in his closet instead of mine. Yay.

And the dresser refinishing went well. I didn't take a before picture, so I wasn't sure about the impact of an after.

Never, never, never choose to put in dark hardwood. I mean you can do what you want, I'm just saying. But it never, never, never looks clean. Well that's not true. It looked clean for like an hour, before Josh got home, while Caed was sleeping. So that was worth the crawling around on hands and knees giving them a good scrub. But it really was. It felt really good to get it really actually clean. Although I do still like my swiffer and its wet pads.

*Sorry Josh, I know it's not you driving to work in your car. I feel bad enough about blaming you that I recognize that, not bad enough that I will delete it. You are being lumped in with the rest of sports car owning people. Yes, yes you are.

Cutting the hair of a squirmy baby. There must be a lesson there.

I gave my Caed a hair cut today. He needed it. He was looking all scgraggaly and unloved. It is REALLY hard to cut his hair. He's a squirm monster. Constantly moving. And then you try to grab some hair to snip and he yanks his head away. But we went outside with an empty drinking box (do not ask me why this was so exciting) and some hair cutting scissors and sat down. He let me cut the very top of his head while he fake drank his invisible juice. 

That was enough of that and I was left with a mulletish (everyone pretend that's a word) son. Trying to be like daddy?

Long story short, we got it cut little by little while he picked new things to play with in the backyard. I'm glad he has curly hair, it hides the hack job that are the hair cuts he receives. It's also super cute when it actually decides to curl and not just 'flap' (flip up?). 

The house feels more home-like everyday. I finally threw all the tools that were on my island into a box and tossed the box into the pantry. So. Much. Better. The entire house feels less cluttered and more livable, thus giving me this luxurious, non-guilty feeling like I don't have to be constantly cleaning, renovating and unpacking. I can blog again! Play with Caed again! Have some pure cuddle time. As in not I'll cuddle with you for 2 minutes and then I have to get back to *insert any one of a long list of "to-do's"*. How nice. 

DO NOT BE DECEIVED! It is still a bit of a disaster! Caed's room is an night-mare. The once almost put together room has become a pile of clothes, furniture and toys... 

My granny and papa moved. Downsized to a condo. We got some really nice things from them including a dresser. It's wonderful! I'm refinishing and putting new hardware on it. Once done, it will be Caed's dresser and hopefully start to fix the tornado. Also, his closet is the source of the infamous and still leaky shower... so I can't hang anything in there. So, so sad.

It will happen. My dad came over last night, and between the three of us working hard and taking turns entertaining Caed we crossed off many things on the never-ending list of things that need to get done. The list is seeming less and less daunting everyday. 

Speaking of the list.....

We Moved Into Our House

Tuesday most everything went into our house. It was raining though, so we stayed one more night at mom and dad's. I wasn't keen on sleeping on a wet mattress.  

Wednesday. We moved the mattress in the rain.

It didn't really get wet. Which was good. I think I would have been grumpy.

So we have been living here, at our house. We have gotten lots done. Sometimes it looks kind of clean. Most of the time it was a disaster. But that's fine. Sometimes. 

We have wieners for supper a lot. Because it's so nice to have a backyard and a fire pit. 

Darci came over on Friday. She painted my side door with coat number 2 of purple. It looks so good. So, so good. And then she chalked my wall. It looks wonderful. I also hung up a bunch of stuff. It looks nice, plus it gets it off my floor, which is also really nice. I like things to be clean. And look nice.

Josh built built-ins in our closet. It. Is. Amazing. I really, really wish I had a before picture of our room. I don't. You can kind of see a little bit of the mess in the first picture below. But it just doesn't do it justice. It was a huge mess. Huge. But now it looks great. So great. And tidy. And there is storage in our house! Yay!!

The washing machine now works! We can clean things. How lovely. So I did a bunch of laundry tonight, and hung it on the line. The really, really high clothes line, that I have to stand on a ladder to hang things on it. Must have been a thing way back when. Did they have a platform? Because it's not all that great without one. But it will do what it's supposed to. And because I don't have a drier that works right now it will have to. Plus the laundry will smell better.

The shower kind of works. I mean we have to run down and turn the water on and then run down after and turn the water off. Not exactly ideal. But we can clean ourselves. So that seems worth it. It would be nice if we could all bathe in the sink.

I installed hardware on my cupboards. Just on the doors first. I didn't get to the drawers. Which is super inconvenient because they're really hard to open. But we'll get to it. I picked out handles so I need two screws placed at an exact distance. And I failed at the first one, so I gave up for tonight. Tomorrow is another day.

Josh also installed the fan in Caed's room. Now we can turn it on and have a little white noise for the baby to sleep to. Sleep in your crib baby. Do it! Do it! It has a remote. Which is kind of cool and kind of scary. Cool, well, because it has a remote and no strings. Scary because, lets face it, remotes tend to get lost. That happens to other people right?!

I don't know what else to tell you. You can come see if you want. :)

Did I mention that we're actually living in our house?

Well, a lot has been done.

We're getting somewhere. The dishwasher and my kitchen sink got hooked up today. Yay! That means I get start cleaning off the piles and piles of dust that clings to my kitchen stuff. So. Much. Dust. Josh did it on his own too, so he's pretty proud. Electrical AND plumbing. What an amazing man.

I've been decently busy too. I've got pictures on the wall. The floor has been mopped many a time. There are curtains hanging. The bathroom door is painted. Flowers planted. Oh! And I went to Ikea.

 Towel Racks. And a toilet paper holder! I definitely took toilet paper holders for-granted all my life. They're so nice to have.

 My flowers! I've been waiting to plant these for a week now. Silly weather. I like them a lot.

 The start of my picture wall. It'll get bigger, just you wait.

 My curtains! We bought these way back in November. I think they look great. And it looks like home.

I did not get the shelf I intended. In fact, there was almost a break-down in the middle of Ikea. The shelving unit I thought I wanted was not the right color. It was a purpley brown and it would have looked silly next to my vanity. But I really needed a shelf. We cut out sooo much storage upstairs. A shelf was much needed in the bathroom. My mama said "Keep calm, dear, we'll find something." (That is definitely a paraphrase... but it was to that effect.) And we did. The shelf moms said would probably work. It's moments like these when it is so obvious why we love and need our mamas. She saved me from public humiliation. She found me a shelf. And in fact, she saved me monies, which is always really nice. I built it myself. I'm quite proud. Although if I'm being honest, most anyone probably could have built it. But I'm still proud.

My Ikea shelf on the left. The drawers and doors were separate. I should actually give Josh some credit, he screwed them in the shelf for me so they wouldn't wiggle. He also helped me move it. He's a great set of muscles to have around.

We've hung curtains. Hung towel racks. Insulated. Drywalled. Painted. Plumbed. Electricalled. Mopped. Laughed, cried, smiled, cheered. We're moving in this week guys.

Actually this time.

Ignore the messes in the following pictures. I know it's bad. We actually got it cleaned up after all the picture taking took place.

How Josh Views Our House. (What? There's more to this renovation thing than pretty??)

Here, my friends, is a guest post by my lovely husband who, before this, has been uncharacteristically silent, although much talked about. Apparently when I'm away instead of getting some work done, he writes things about insulation. I'm not going to lie, some of you might find this boring. But he's really into it, so bear with him. (If it's really horrible you can think of/empathize with me and how often I am forced into to converse about get to hear all about how energy efficient our house now is. But he tries hard, works hard and he has a really pretty face, so I keep him around.) A bit of it might be overlap, but you can hear it from his non-whiny perspective. Oh, and I took the liberty of commenting twice, which you're probably not supposed to do on someone's guest post, but I felt I could be given a little more leniency because he IS my husband and what-not. One of the comments isn't even sarcastic or anything. Enjoy!

______________________________________________________________________

Guest Post!  This is Josh writing to tell you all about the guts and mechanics of our home.  To me, finishes are nice but the exciting part is what is inside the walls, in the attic and all the systems that keep a home running and habitable.

The walls:

Our home was built extremely well by someone or some people in 1957.  It has a solid frame, the backbone of any house, but when it comes to energy use, it fails miserably.  With no vapour barrier and very little (or sometimes no) insulation, our home would have been a great help warming up medicine hat all winter as our warm air leaked out. 

So we decided that we would gut the entire upstairs walls, removing one inch of drywall, cement and plaster, pulling out nasty dusty old insulation and installing mineral wool insulation called Roxul.  This has an R rating (R being the measurement of resistance to heat transfer - the higher the better) of R14.  This was a huge improvement of the R4 that we took out.  We also installed a vapour barrier which stops cold air from leaking in and heat from leaking out. 

Altogether, this was the most labour intensive part of our whole house redo.

The Attic:

The building code of Canada requires vented attics to be insulated to at least R40 but R50 is recommended for our climate in Western Canada.  Our attic had R4, just like in the walls and in one spot, there was nothing at all.  Heat was just flowing into winter air for over 50 years. 

Fixing this was not fun because it included putting attic baffles up for proper venting and putting a vapour barrier over the whole attic which also turned out to be a 100% unfun couple bonding experience for both Ashley and myself.  This was all prep work and we had no clue what we were in store for when we actually blew in the insulation.

Saturday March 31, I went to Home Depot in the morning and rented a blower machine (just an auger with a really loud fan to blow the insulation) and about 60 bags of cellulose insulation (in contrast to the more standard fiberglass.  The price was almost the same but in my opinion, cellulose has some things going for it that I like.  1) it’s made from recycled newspaper.  We could actually read some of the words from some bigger pieces.  2) it settles (which you need to account for) and stops airflow better than fiberglass and 3) it has a higher R value per inch which is what we wanted.

So we blew in this stuff and man did it make a mess.  In the attic with the hose, it was like being in a blizzard for 4 hrs.  Outside on the ground, Ashley was mashing up bags into the auger which wasn’t as messy but still lots of work. (Curtis definitely took over mashing for me. I felt like I could not, in good conscience, leave that unmentioned.)

In the end, when we got our energy audit done, the insulation level was at R70, well beyond code and well on the way to passive house standards (a whole other post).

The Basement:

Our basement was cold, like many basements,  However, we didn’t like that because we wanted to eventually use that space for bedrooms and play areas so cold would not do.  We went from cold conrete walls to R30 walls in one weekend with the help of family and Don and Mike from the church.  We first put up 1 ½’ rigid XPS styrofoam that acted as a quasi vapour barrier and frost wall and then put up 2x6 walls with studs 24” apart with R22 Roxul insulation and then a vapout barrier and drywall. 

Now the basement is warm - which is very nice. 

Thanks for reading this far.  Energy conservation is not everyone’s cup of tea but it is something I like/am very passionate about.  I’ll write more about air sealing and the furnace another time. (Bet you can't wait, right?)

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And now feel free to let me know how much you miss me, love me and want me to commence writing on this blog... like forever.

Couter tops.

It was the weekend for my husband. Which meant lots got done. Aaaalmost enough that we can move in. Almost. 

We did lots of trim. We did lots of plumbing. And we did lots of getting ready to live there. 

On Friday we went and started doing trim, Josh worked more on plumbing and I well, I mopped. Again. 

On Saturday we did more stuff. The same stuff. 

On Sunday I got to play in the sandbox. Score!! Our babysitters went on a vacation, so I played with Caed while Josh worked. Not that he's not used to that... it's basically how this house renovation has gotten done. 

Monday. Dad came home. And dad fixed the plumbing Josh was having trouble with. We can shower!!

They also moved the counter top up. So exciting. I think it looks so great! It was also really, really heavy. Really heavy. I didn't even attempt, because, lets face it, a big slab of concrete does not seem like something I could ever, would ever, want to, be able to lift. So dad and Josh were on it. Yay! 

 Taking a break before the final heave-ho. It was long trip up the stairs. Good work out anyway.

 It looks even better with a tap!

I know I say this every other post. But it's really, actually starting to look like a house. 

I've even been hanging pictures on the wall. I can't plumb, and the shelving required using a big saw thing that scares me, so I avoided that too... that left picture hanging and other fun stuff like that, to so. Floating shelves anyone?! Oh yes. Floating shelves. The unfortunate part about me trying to do stuff on my own is that more often than I'd like to admit, I require Josh to help. Ashley hanging up a floating shelf in the living room - "could you just help me quick to mark out where I need to drill?" "I can't get the anchors in, could you just help quick?" "Can you drill this one... I made the holes uneven, and can't seem to screw it in." "Oh look! Doesn't that shelf look great?!" Oh yes, he put up the shelf. Even when I was doing it on my own he was just standing there cringing. I must make it look awkward, or difficult or all of the above. 

 Ignore the lack of trim around the floor. Do notice - pictures hung, trim around the window, general room arrangement.

 I hung that floating shelf above the toilet without help! Boo ya. There is also a toilet paper holder and a towel bar hung. Not that you can see them in the picture, so you'll just have to trust me.

Have I mentioned how great my kid is lately? Because he played like a trooper in our gross, messy, dangerous house with few toys. He even helped me mop. What a sweetie.

 

Has it Been a Week Already?

Ok, not quite. But tomorrow will have been so I better post now. 

6 days ago we celebrated my baby's first birthday. 3 days ago we celebrated it again. Because he's spoiled. And super wonderful. And moms and tots is on Tuesdays and I thought it would be fun to do one outside. Also, all I ever talk about is our house, so I thought, "Hey, people should just come over and see it." So it was kind of a double win. Not to mention I have the best mom in the world and she helped an incredible amount to make the two parties possible. I would have gone nutty had I done it alone.

My babe turning one was pretty cool. We did a monster theme. Had a few friends and the family over. It was lots of fun. We roasted wieners. And ate cake. And opened presents. And then people started leaving, but the lucky few who decided they enjoyed my company enough to stay (namely family, because they're stuck with me and have to love me no matter what) got to have what I will call here "Super S'mores." And they WERE super. 

Pintrest anyone? Not only has pintrest inspired many small details, and paint colors, and other fun things, in my house, it also has plethora of other, non-house related, ideas. Such as Super S'mores. (Only they mistakenly did not call them that.) The Super S'more, my friend, is a delicious treat. It is all the goodness of a s'more and a little bit more. It is different, yet better. Quite wonderful even.

Curious yet?

Take a waffle cone. Throw in some marshmallows, some chocolate and anything else of your choice, we did strawberries. We also did without strawberries. Wrap it in tinfoil. Melt that chocolate and those marshmallows over a fire. Enjoy. And you will. Because I didn't name them Super S'mores until after I had eaten one. MMMM. Try it. So worth it. SUPER S'MORE! There will be many, many more of those to come this summer. And if you ever decide to trek out to see me, and you stay long enough to make a fire, I promise we will try them.

Also, has anyone seen those giant marshmallow's that they have out and about this year? So fun!! I bought some of those to try too. A review on that to come.

Caed was spoiled like crazy on his birthday. SO MANY GIFTS. He is clearly loved. Thank you everyone who gave him something. You are all so kind to our family.

Monster Cake. The eyeballs were too heavy though. We ended up putting marshmallows up the sticks to make them stay.

 It was also a rainbow cake. Fun!

 Playing with sidewalk chalk while the girls played with the doll house.

 The balloons were one of the best things at the party to play with.

Eating!

 More playing. Melissa (and family) gave us this slide, because they outgrew it. So nice of them. Caed loves it!

More eating!

 Pop up cards are way better than opening presents.

 Every time!

 Getting help opening presents. To be so lucky- three beautiful girls to help you, Caed. I'm quite certain you did not appreciate this as much as you should have.

 Finally getting the hang of opening gifts.

 Bouncy ball from Uncle Cool.. err... Josh

A bouncy cow from Aunty Jodi and Uncle Curtis. So fun!

You will notice there are no pictures of the Caed with his cake (although there is one of him eating cake). We tried to set the cake and him in his high chair, with a messy cake picture in mind... he just cried. So that was a no go.

One more to leave this off. Darci playing in the sandbox beside Caed. (Notice a deliberate "beside" and not "with." Quote: "These tonka trucks are awesome!")