Thursday, January 16, 2014

Renovation - Nearing the end

I am closing in the on finishing the study.   The door is built to cover the breaker box.  I ended up putting hinges on the trim that then attaches to the wall.  This seems to work pretty well.  I also added a few additional screws from the plywood to the trim to help hold it in place, since there is quite a bit of weight now on the trim.  Additionally I added some L brackets at all the corners to tie all the trim together.  This should help make it studier.  Additionally I added a magnet at the bottom to keep the whole thing closed.

The room is nearly finished.  I started moving the stud furniture in the room so other parts of the house could start being cleaned up.  I still have a little bit of chalking to do around the door then I will have to do touch up paint.  Allin all I am so close it is starting to fell like I have actually accomplished something.  

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Mission: Completion (sort of)

We have been busy, busy, busy. Terry's writing a post about finishing the study/guest room and - yes - that means it is finished! And, with the room in move-in condition we moved in!

Hi, honey
 All the study furniture got out of the "media" room and we're still debating exactly how we'll lay out the guest room portion so none of that has gone in yet.

With the study furniture gone, we were able to go buy those bookcases I've been waiting for and get the books out of boxes in the basement closet. As we seem to have culled more books than I thought, we also had room to put up the small mountain of family snapshots.

My amazing husband also redid the kitchen pantry with more, adjustable shelves so a great number of small kitchen appliances were able to find their way into the kitchen. Really, anything that gets used at least once a week deserves a place here, but until now there just wasn't room.

In the spirit of organization, we have also tackled the linen/hallway closets. One is now entirely devoted to kitchen equipment. Even with the additional pantry space the kitchen is, as I may have mentioned before, too small. We even got to pull three boxes of lesser-used kitchen/dining-ware out of Zoltan's bedroom (4 year old boys don't really need closets) and found new homes for the contents of the 2 large boxes. Thus, only one smaller box returned to Zoltan's closet. The other hallway closet now houses all bathroom and linen related items. And most of a shelf is still empty!

The final step of all this organization will be to go through all the kids' toys, purge what should go and pack away a subset of rotating toys like we used to do ... now that there is room in the basement closet for all that stuff.

And then it will feel (mostly) like home.

Friday, January 10, 2014

A typical night

8:00pm: Kids are tucked into bed.
8:06pm: Zoltan calls "Mommy, mommy!"  Turns out he "needs" the potty. Let him go. "Mommy, I want you to be with me." Chats a mile a minute while sitting on the toilet. When I can finally break in, I ask if he's done. No, didn't make anything. Tuck him back into bed.
8:15pm: Zoltan calls "Mommy, mommy!"  Turns out he is "thirsty". Bring him some water. Tell him to go to bed and I don't want to hear from him anymore.
8:22pm: Zoltan calls "Mommy, mommy!"  Turns out he "had a bad dream". Can't have dreams when you aren't asleep. Give him one more big hug and kiss and tell him to get some sleep so he can have sweet dreams.
8:26pm: Zoltan calls "Mommy, mommy!"  Turns out he wants to know what we're going to do tomorrow.
8:30pm: Zoltan calls "Mommy, mommy!"  Daddy goes in this time and tells him to go to bed. Because, you know, daddy means business.
8:55pm: Zoltan calls "Mommy, mommy!"  Turns out he needs the potty, and with a child you're trying to get out of pullups you allow every false call. This time he actually goes.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Renovation Update - The end is near

This weekend was an exciting weekend.  We are closing in on finishing the study. On Saturday I ran right after breakfast to get trim and some other miscellaneous things for the house at Home Depot.  Got back and proceeded to work on getting the trim painted.  My sawhorse only allowed me to paint half the trim at once. You can see in the photo to the left.  So I started with the door trim since that is the first thing that needs to go up.  While I was waiting for that to dry I worked on cleaning up the doors from the side table.

One really nice thing about the gas heat in our house is it makes everything so dry that you don't have to wait long for the paint to dry.  I was able to get two coats on the trim with a last round of touch up before the game.  In the morning the door trim was done and I did a quick coat on the floor trim after coffee but before breakfast.  Then I started to hang the trim around the door.  I ran into an issue with my brad nailer.  Basically it was not working.  It appears sitting in storage for seven years dried up the piston with a rubber ring and the pressure could not move it.  So I oiled everything really well and put it back to together.  It took a little work getting the nailer back in shape but finally it was.  Once that was going the trim went up in no time. It is amazing how much faster the right tool makes things.  It is also amazing how people built house before power tools.  That is some skill and toughness.  Also explains why houses were generally smaller.  The photo on the right shows just the door trim up.

I managed to get on three coats of paint on the second round of trim before nap.  Once that was dry it was no time to cut and hang the rest of the trim. On the left you can see the final room with the trim up.

There still is a bit to do.  We need to do some touch up painting where we caulked the trim.  Also I still need to figure out a way to install the door over the breaker box to cover it but still make it accessible.  So far all the hinges I have tried have thwarted me, but I have one last idea.  More on that later if it works.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Kiwi Crate

I'd heard rave reviews of Kiwi Crate for a good year or so. For Hanukkah, my mom got the kids a subscription. I can't say enough good things about it.

I love that they include every single thing you need for the projects - even down to tape. Alex was able to follow the step by step instructions (with pictures) without any help, although I was a pretty active and excited observer. I love all the little extras - a few additional projects you can put together, the pair of scissors they include in the first crate of the subscription because a lot of the projects need cutting, the extra glow sticks that are only actually needed if you do the additional projects, the booklet with stories and activities all on the theme of the projects.
The kit comes with 2 projects plus the add-ons mentioned above. We managed to do one project between opening gifts and showers/bedtime, which means it took fewer than 10 minutes. Alex slept with her new glowworm stuffed animal for several nights and Zoltan spent days petting and hugging his.

Because my mom is eager, she ordered the subscription well in advance and we've already received all 3 crates. The third crate (I skipped the 2nd for now) was winter themed. The "extra" was a snowflake cookie cutter and recipes for sugar cookies and salt dough to make ornaments.  One of the main projects was malfunctioning and this is where I get to extol the quality of their customer service.

I don't like that there are no phone numbers anywhere on their web site; you have to email your problem and wait for a reply. But, to their credit, the reply came only a few hours later. They immediately sent a replacement for what didn't work AND told me where to find a similar product in a craft store if I didn't want to wait for delivery.

When relaying everything to Terry, I marveled at the good customer service we've been receiving lately. After thinking about it a moment, I observed "Maybe we're just used to bad service after 4 years of Russia and then Comcast."

Friday, January 3, 2014

Fat Brain Toys

We have been happy consumers of Fat Brain Toys for several years now. I like how most of their stuff isn't plastic crap. They tell us where most of the toys are made and even break it down age and gender-wise who's buying the products.  I even spent a November Gratitude extolling their virtues.

And then they got even better.

Last we knew, an item was missing from our Christmukkah order and they shipped it out right on time. Of course, it was a replacement for something that never came so they didn't charge us for it. It arrived the morning of the first night of Hanukkah. However, the night before that I had discovered the original item that had, in fact, been included in the original order.

I called to find out what to do and was told to follow the process for "returns" outlined on their web site. So, I did. Then they refunded us the cost of the item because, I assume, it was considered a regular return. I called to explain what happened and to tell them to put the charge back on.

The lady sent me a $5 credit as a thank you for the call. And by the way, all this fuss was for an item that cost $7.95.

Winter weather observation

Last night we finally got some snow. Today we finally got some cold weather. The kids lasted all of 5 minutes outside this morning. Already going soft? Maybe. But I also note that - presumably because of all the tall buildings - there's rarely a blustery wind in Piter other than on the bridges. Here the wind was whipping everything about, including the snow that got in the kids' faces. I am a little surprised at us that we aren't likely to go back out and play in the beautiful, pristine snow!

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Wordless Wednesday


One Little Word 2014

Last year I jumped on the bandwagon. When I hesitated about something, I remembered to "trust". When I wondered about someone's behavior or questioned their motives, I remembered to "trust". When I questioned my own ability, I remembered to "trust". It served me so well I am doing it again.

This year my word is:
Health
I'll be focusing on all aspects: physical, emotional, spiritual.
http://aliedwards.com/blog/one-little-word