Houses and more important things

I thought I should probably post something here. Actually the most exciting thing that's happening is how well my baby is walking. He's almost there. So soon he's going to be walking everywhere. I'm not sure how it's going to change life. He already crawls at ridiculously fast speeds and gets into everything. But maybe I'm just being optimistic. I'm excited to see him walking. He claps whenever he gets to where he wants to go. Hilarious. I'm also really sad my boy is growing up so fast. And changing, like every minute. It's also wonderful. I love my kisses and hugs and my heart is happy whenever he says mamamamama, even when he's not talking to me. "Dis", "dis" (this, this). That's what we all listen to everyday all day. As he points at everything. All day. But it's fun. Also throwing things. Everything. All things. We need to start channeling his throwing abilities. Because he's really good at it, but it hurts if it's not a ball.

So our house. Our house is looking more and more house like, livable in and pretty everyday. The living room/hallway/kitchen is all painted. I have one more coat of chalk board paint to put up and then we'll officially be owners of a magnetic chalk board wall. I think it's neat. I hope Caed will too. The living room and hallway have flooring. So pretty. So just the kitchen and our room left to floor. And only our room left to paint. We actually might live there some day. 

The end of May Dar has to make a trip to Calgary... for school or, you know, something. But I like to call it our Ikea trip. Because we're going to go to Ikea. And I'm going to buy things. Namely a shelf/pantry thing for my bathroom (mess be hidden!) and some other this and that items. Vote: ceiling fan in the bed room or pretty light fixture? I'm leaning towards pretty light fixture, but my practical side (it shrinks when the alternative is pretty) says I should get a ceiling fan. Or maybe that was Josh talking? 

My brothers are helping out once again. So while I'm writing about the house, they're actually at the house. Hauling drywall downstairs. Hanging drywall? I would know if I went. They are so lovely. And I didn't go because I am, for two weeks, a working woman. Ok, it's only in the mornings and it is only for two weeks. But I feel tired. And I miss my boy more than I thought I would, like a lot, which is silly because I'm not gone that long, but it's true. He's too wonderful. Also, I can't lift drywall. I'm a wimp. I stayed home.

I have no pictures of the house. I apologize. I shall leave you with a picture of my son eating a banana. 

Cute and hilarious, right?! Wait 'til he gives you an open mouth kiss. You'll love that slobbery mess.

Toasty

Get you all pumped up for the basement framing and follow up by telling you nothing. Keeping you in suspense. In the dark. So uncool. Well enough is enough. Tonight is the night that I welcome you to our pink basement.

Ta dah!

We had two guys come help on Saturday. Amazing. Thank you Mike and Don. Your hands were a huge help and extremely appreciated. Josh (obviously) and dad were also there and between the four of them all the rigid foam got up and half the basement was framed Saturday during the day. And yes, I did show up. I believe I stayed long enough to put up 5 mmmmaybe 6 pieces of rigid foam, do a little taping, snap a couple pictures, bbq some hamburgers (in the rain, just saying) aaaand... nope that's about it.

As if that wasn't wonderful enough, later that day these two gangstas showed up. 

There are a couple funny stories that could and should be shared here, but I need to get permission first.

On a less hilarious note, with Curt and Josh's help, we (and I am including me this time) got so, so close to finishing framing I'd basically consider it done. We got almost all of the top half of insulation up (we need some electrical done on the bottom half before we can insulate). We got ready for the electrical to be done. And I spent another moment attempting to defeat my white whale... the bumpy wall. I would call the day a success!

If you refer to the picture above, of Curt and Josh, you can see a before picture. Here is an after.

Pretty decent right? The rigid foam (all the pink stuff) took sooo long to put up. But our extra arms and legs diligently finished it. (Did I say thank you? "Thank you!") Our ceiling is just short enough that every piece had to be cut down. And then the joists are all awkward and such, so dad spent a lot of time cutting small pieces to put in between every one... tedious to say the least. I know, because I then spent time cutting pieces of the insulation to cover the rigid foam. I almost finished. My face got really itchy.

Our basement is already warmer than it was before, which is wonderful. The only thing better than seeing your work, is knowing it was worth it. Toasty.

On a main level update, I think I picked out all of my light fixtures. I've exchanged a couple of times already, and I had a few that I hadn't even thought about. You know what, I just lied. I still need a ceiling fan for the living room, but I can't find one I really really like. AND a light for the pantry. And not to deceive you but I don't physically have the bedroom lights either.... I want to go to Ikea for those. But technically I have picked out what I want for those two. Light fixtures have not been easy.

My light fixture problem occurs with the whole open concept idea. Combined with having a lot of different light locations. Our house will be bright if nothing else. I have two lights in my kitchen, which I chose track lighting for. We're putting a chandelier of sorts over our table, which will technically be in the kitchen and living space simultaneously. The afore (it's telling me 'afore' is not a word. Blogger is an hater of Old English) mentioned ceiling fan for the living room. A hallway light. And last, but not least, a side entry light. The two track lights in the kitchen are the only ones that are the same... I thought about making the hallway light and entry way light the same, but dad mentioned it would be extremely difficult to change a bulb in any light fixture that doesn't hang down in the front entry, and a light that hangs in the hallway would be a hazard, so that didn't happen. Now (well not really "now" now... but eventually) if you stand in the door way to the kitchen, beside the chimney, you will be able to see 5 different light fixtures. This will be a true test of my decorating skills. 

Back to the basement.

Pink Panther

Dad being his wonderful self, patiently putting up small pieces of rigid foam between every joist.

You can see our half insulated work.

 Discussion!

Working hard.

On a different note, still related to my life (because really, that's what blogging is all about... right?) Caed stood by himself for... 30? seconds. Amazing. He promptly fell with a crash (more a scare than any pain) afterwards, so he may never do it again, but it was crazy. Crazy cool. Crazy unbelievable. Crazy he's growing up really fast. Crazy. 

I never got why parents always said that "growing up too fast". I didn't feel like I grew up too fast. Those first 18 years kind of seemed to take close to forever... I'm sure I felt every second of it (not in a bad way, I had a wonderful childhood). I mean my birthday's didn't come fast enough. And Christmas... was that really once a year, or did we skip it every other year? But we did. We all grew up too fast. One minute we're helpless and completely dependent and then we walk, which is just the beginning of "I have nothing to wear" and "Why do I have to make my bed? I'm just going to mess it up again". And soon, so soon, we're crying and saying goodbye. (And then hugging and saying hello again, because we need our laundry done.) But I can't think about that. Instead I'll focus on training so I have the endurance to keep up to a running toddler. 

Speaking of running, everyone was saying how busy it's going to be when he starts walking. I asked Josh how much different it could be, he's already into everything and going everywhere, where else is there to go? Josh - "Up." Which is probably true, that's something to look forward to.

Tired

I'm tired. We've been at the house lots lately. I'm going to be honest. Josh has been there a lot more than I have. I don't know how he does it. Either way. I'm tired.

I've also been mudding the same section of wall and ceiling for four days now. It was really bad. I should have taken a picture. Regardless, because of the difference in thickness between the drywall they used 50 years ago and the drywall today matching it is not easy. So it's bumpy and gross and it's getting better, but so so slowly. I will defeat it though. I will. 

So while I mudded the same piece of wall and ceiling, my brothers joined my husband and they took apart the basement. It looks so big now! Wow. There were two bedrooms and a bathroom that needed to be taken apart. They got most of it down last night. The sub-floor and exterior wall in the one bedroom needed to be finished tonight. The garage is once again full of junk.

Dad busied himself with electrical work. He got some more plugs working for us, which will be wonderful because between extension cords and few plugs, it was sometimes a chore getting something to work. But now it does. He also let me strip some wire when I was done mudding. That was pretty fun. He has cool tools. 

Dad putting a plug in the chimney.

 Josh hydrating. It's important.

Notice the lack of wall. Yay! You can also see Josh cleaning up the wall.

Curtis working really hard.

 Curtis lifting up the sub-floor by himself.

Lifting the sub-floor together.

I think one of my favorite things that keeps on being repeated is "what were they thinking?" It's true. I mean, sand under the shower, an inch and a half of insulation on the walls, the peep whole*... what were they thinking? But I also imagine in 50 years from now someone taking out my pantry with the rigged up platform it sits on, the dry wall... in general, the hole above the cupboards, and the unpainted strip there also, saying "what were they thinking?" My imagination makes me giggle every time we see something silly. Because we're silly too. I do hope the cycle repeats itself some day.

*I forgot to ever mention this. Not only did the original bathroom not have a shower, it had a small cupboard above the sink. But this cupboard was not an ordinary cupboard. Oh no. Once opened you realize it is not actually a cupboard at all. It is a small door leading to the laundry room. I'm really, really not sure what they were thinking. Laundry chute? 

To help orient you - this picture is taken facing the hallway. The little 'cupboard' you see is looking out into where the laundry used to be. You can actually see the door to our bedroom, which has not moved, through it.

Follow-through

Here's the post about the rest of the weekend. 

So two coats of mud done. One to go! Yay! In the back two rooms anyway. I'm slowly finishing the first coat of the front room... ssslllooowwwlllyyy. It's kind of the sort of thing that I'm doing while waiting for Josh to finish getting something else ready so I can do that instead. (Third coat almost got completed last night... so close.)

Know what's sad? I used to think I was all independent. If I really had to do something I could get it done. Feminism rules! I've been proven wrong lots. Like sometimes I can't even get the drywall pail open. And I tried to mix mortar. The mixer is really strong. Long story short, it's all making me even just a little bit more thankful for my Josh. Not only is he strong, but he also knows what he's doing. Unless I've seen Brian or Holmes do it, I just don't know.

So I hope by now you've realized that I have a great family. Dad has done all the electrical up to this point, and he'll probably finish. Curtis, Josh and Dad do all sorts of other chores for us, like demo, or helping put cupboards up and moving appliances, putting in insulation, sub-floors and many, many other miscellaneous jobs that need to get done. I don't even know where we would be without them... a lot less far than we are and lets face it, despite all that we're still much further behind than we would have liked. Also, mom and dad babysit. Which is awesome. Cause then I can not be a slacker. Ridiculously helpful. Oh and also the whole giving us a place to live that's not a disaster and dust filled and which has functional toilets... that's pretty huge.

So on Monday, Josh (brother) made 1950 size door ways into 2012 size door ways. I've already mentioned he helped tile. Curtis put corner bead on a bunch of corners and then painted a lot of wainscoting (like a lot of painting).  So when we're done tiling, that will pretty much be ready to put up.  Yay! Wonderful family.

Josh in his newly renovated, higher doorway.

Josh putting safety first. (I laughed too. He insisted that the ear part was attached to the helmet so he had to wear it all while cutting tile. I found that explanation did not make him look any less silly.)

Curtis painting.

And painting.

Josh holding up a piece of drywall that has glue on it. I was supposed to be grabbing the drywall gun so he could screw it up. I decided to take a picture instead.

Josh measuring.

Josh dry walling.

Mudddddding! Yay! How fun.

To conclude this post I shall show you a picture of my shower head (and faucet any everything) because I think it is beautiful and I am as excited about it as my sink faucet.

A good reason to get clean.

Oh and did I mention how much I appreciate my family? I really, really do.

Kitchen

Our cupboards came three weeks early. (Yay). Which will seriously speed up our moving in process. Because we can get them in and then order counter tops now instead of in three weeks. So this is lovely. It also means that the bathroom has momentarily been forgotten about.

Kitchen kitchen kitchen. Here are pictures of what our kitchen, piled with cupboards in boxes, and without drywall looks like. I'll post pictures that show off our new drywall and the pretty pantry Josh built me tomorrow.

Demo.

Old insulation gone. The worst job. So much dust. And windows framed in.

Getting the electrical in.

Sneak peak at the cupboards. Pre-assembled and with that soft closing hardware. Spoiled anyone?

The wall I insulated in Caed's bedroom.