Now what!

So we drove up to Kirkland on Fri. night, and the drive was fine. I was thinking it was going to be a easy weekend until Sat. am my brother discovered one of my rear tires was flat. I don't mean a little low; flat. I just bought these tires about 3 weeks ago. He pumped it up and we kept an eye on it. Stress set in - now I have to drive 130 mi. home w/ a tire I can't trust. I decided to go to Cassie's bday party anyway ( in Tami's van). Tami set up appointments for the bday party members to have manicures and up-dos at a beauty school in Dekalb.Jackie's hair turned out very pretty. They all looked like they should be going to a ball.

I don't think I will be able to replicate this some day for a dance.

It was fun. My tire stayed pumped up all afternoon, so we decided it would probably be okay to drive home. Erik and Steve stayed by their phones in case of an emergency. I didn't drive as fast as I did on Friday, so it took us a little longer to get home. We made it home, but later that evening we checked the tire and it was flat again.

Monday morning: Put air in tire, get Jackie to school, get Josie to school, get Shelby to the vet for surgery, and get to Goodyear by 8 am. I think I'm going to need a rubber room. We got everyone to their respective places. I took the jeep to work, and Steve took the van to Goodyear. I'm waiting to hear the verdict on the tire.

Of course, there is now snow on the tar papered roof, so I think the shingles are delayed again. I think it will be warmer on Thurs. and this puts another week delay on everything.

It will be okay!

Another Snafu

This week we went to Hampton's. We went here 11 years ago when we remodeled the kitchen, and got great service. Steve was off Wed., and I had already researched online which Merrilat cabinet I wanted. Dan had dropped off a kitchen layout for the salesperson to work w/. She was very helpful and is designing the kitchen on the computer for us to see. I have a hard time visualizing. I'm hoping she'll call today and email it to me. I spent a lot of time yesterday comparing what we will have to what we have now. We will probably also get the bathroom vanities here. Steve was oogling the garage stuff Hampton's has now. I had to tell him that was well off in the future.

Sooo, I stopped by the house yesterday, while Dan was shoveling off the roof, to drop off some LS invoices. Tar paper today maybe, shingles? - we have no idea. The big Snafu is the garage door. He had called me around noon to say that the company had come to install the garage door and it is the wrong size. What did you order - he says to me. Uhhhh - a garage door. I know we specified an 18 ft width, but I do not remember being asked about the height. It is framed for an 8ft, and a 7ft was ordered. Of course, it was a special order, because we had windows added. Restocking fee is 50%. We can reframe for a 7ft, pay the restocking fee, or buy both and hope Fleming can sell the other one. Steve was livid last night. This is not our fault, he grumbled. So he is calling this morning, to complain. The salesperson should have checked w/ Dan for the dimensions. I await the call from Steve to see how it went.

Mantra - "It will be okay." I nearly had a panic attack yesterday afternoon thinking about it, and I had to talk myself down. Everything always works out. Stay tuned for the next episode!

A little stressed

Due to the wonderful weather last week , we did not get our roof done.

I stopped on my way home tonight, because I knew Dan had been working a little on the inside. I found this box in the garage, so my 3 pocket door frames have been put up. There is one in the laundry room, one on the pantry, and one on the toilet section of our master bath. Below is a pic of the master bath metal pocket door frame.

Here is the framing for the corner fireplace. Now I can visualize it better.

On an unhappy note, Shelby needs surgery next Monday. There is a cyst on her back that is infected and bleeding. (I know - gross.) She is on antibiotics and I put a bandage over the open wound, so she can spend time w/ the rest of the family. Otherwise she was going to be relagated to the laundry room. So the estimate is $440 for the surgery, and I'm just going to use the vacation fund, since we probably won't be going on a vaca for a couple years. So hopefully next week, she'll be feeling better.

Maybe they'll be able to work on the roof if the weather gets above freezing. I'll post on Friday.

Fireplace and plumbing

Sat. we went to KBL to look at the std fireplace that Dan puts in. We liked it and the only upgrade we did was an electric ignition. Now we have to decide what we want around it. I think my dad is going to do the mantle when we do the trim work. I was thinking brick around it like the brick outside, but the slate looked kind of nice too. Everything is sooo expensive.

This morning we went to Connor Co. to look at plumbing fixtures. The plumber picked out basic stuff for his estimate. Not the cheap stuff, but middle of the road. Now we are in a debate about how much upgrading we are going to do. Steve likes the stainless steel look, and I'm perfectly fine with chrome. We like the stuff picked out for the girls bathroom, so that is done. We upgraded the kitchen faucet and the sink to an undermount. We like the tub (seen above), but we don't know if Dan is going to do a drop-in, or wall to wall. I have to wait until he gets back from Mexico.... grumble, grumble. We are having discussions about the faucets. The one that was picked out is traditional looking

This is the one I like and there is a couple others. I guess we don't have too much time to dwell on this, because of ordering. The first things in are the girls bath and our bathtub. We'll get it done. I'm not sure of when it is needed, because they still have to do the roof, windows, doors, siding, and garage door.
The debate will continue tonight.

Beautiful Sunset

I stopped on Wed., because Steve had told me the peak of the roof was on. Darn snow slowed down the progress. I called Dan on Thurs. night to see how everything was going. He is going to Mexico w/ LS lumber on Sat., so he won't be working next week. The roofing guys are going to get started. Cool - until I checked out the weather for next week. By Wed. I think it is supposed to be 10 degrees again. My homework for this week is to go to KBL to look at fireplaces and go to Connor Plumbing to decide on bathroom stuff for the plumber.

Friday - I left work at 3:30, picked Jackie up at home and dropped her at school for the dance at 4. Drove to the ATM, UPS store to ship a broken toy back, and to the gas station. Picked up Josie at latchkey, and we went to the house. On the way, we saw this beautiful sunset and stopped to get a picture. Walked around the house, and then went to Schnucks for groceries. After that we went to Blockbuster for movies and picked Jackie up at school at 6pm, then on to home. I'm exhausted.

The left side of the house (as seen from the road) is the only open spot left on the roof. Dan said something about the roofing guys maybe papering the roof this weekend.

All of the roof is finally covered. It 's funny our back porch seems small now. Our house towers over the rest of our neighbors. Steve wants to know how tall the peak is. I should have him climb up there and find out.

Dan said they have been doing some things inside the house. Braces, hurricane clips, etc....


There were a couple things laying inside the house. Here is the garage door frame, and the soffit accessories.

I'll try to take some pics of our decision making of bathroom stuff. I think it will take much longer than we think.

Holidays

Here we are Christmas morning trying out Steve's new camera tripod. Now I might get to be in some of the pictures.

After we got home from Grandma Ruth's, we played Wii. I was sore the next day.

We bought this rug at Lowe's to replace a grungy one that was under the table. I think this will look nice in the new house.

Jo had a piece of her art work on display at Northwood's Mall. It was a Camping

Scene (Top right of cabinet, landscape art).

Here's the cousins enjoying suckers found in their stockings.

We stopped by the house on Friday. I thought the roof would be covered, because this week has been pretty nice. I talked to Dan on Christmas Eve, and he was on vacation in Texas this week, but the other 3 guys were going to be working. Maybe they took some time off too. Maybe I'm expecting them to move faster on the roof. There is still a lot of roof to put plywood on. I have my fingers crossed for good weather, so we can get the shingles on.

The peak of the roof should be up this week. Dad thinks they did not engineer the trusses for a 2 ft. overhang like they were supposed to. I'm going to have to check this out. I guess it is definitely too late to do anything about it. My windows are in at the lumberyard, and I need to call and check about some discrepencies w/ my bill. Most of the windows are white on the screen side, and it says a couple are stone. Need to get this cleared up. After the shingles are on, the windows and doors go in. Hopefully I'll see some progress this week.