Progress

The interior of my screen porch is almost all painted - I'm going to finish the posts between the screens tomorrow on my lunch hour (the kid will do most of the rest of it in the morning, he's quite a reasonably good painter for his age and wants to earn money for a drumsetgodhelpme)

I have a nice clock for out there, and some other inexpensive little things sitting patiently in a pile until I get my porch rug (which should be Friday). Just a piece of indoor-outdoor carpeting but a nice blue/gray, and it should cut down on the stray bug population wandering up through the floorboards and flying around the family room!

My favorite neighbors came over for a while after dinner to hang out, give Oooh and Ahh feedback, and play a little Wii. I heart them. My "uncle" B stood in front of the counter and said "Can you see my ribs from the x-ray waves coming off the counter?" Tee hee. That helped.

I got my grandmother's hutch (- a good BEFORE photo) back in the right place in the kitchen, and it looks very sharp against the green wainscoting. Real B & A photos, coming soon.

break out the bonbons

....we're done... my room is starting to be put back together... most importantly my REAL PC IS HOOKED BACK UP.

photos to follow, when I finish rolling around on the carpet and laughing hysterically.

Post 1450

Ok, I got tired of counting days. SO I noticed how many posts I have already on this blog (way too many! and yes, I need to focus on my other hobbies)

Tomorrow (Wednesday) should be Bob the builder's LAST DAY AT MY HOUSE.

Thursday the rug - THE RUG -- THE RUG!!! should be installed. I plan to lie on it, roll around... eat bon bons. Then reclaim the house and start putting things back where they belong.

I rearranged my work schedule so I"ll have Thursday off, as well as Friday. Yaaaaay. I plan to do as much as I can Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and then kind of just chill on Sunday because I have to move my day off around again next week too.

day something

I have lost count of the days since this project started. I know it's at least 8 weeks.

It's been a bad week around here. BTB is not feeling well again. His right hand guy has been out of work all week with a different medical problem.

My fireplace is out of the box, and against the wall but completely not done. Almost nothing looks different around here since last weekend. Very disheartening

I have no rug yet. I just want my damn family room rug. I can't put my main pc back together, I can't bring in my new desk and start unpacking my scrapbook stuff, or my beads - my things that I need so badly.

My job is in flux again. Limbo, terrific. I feel like I need to stay where I am for another year because I have no one else I can rely on to get my daughter home after her tutoring each day. But I'm slowly climbing the walls of my cubicle. I am not focused, I don't feel like I'm contributing lately --because my efforts to support the team are just not appreciated by my peers. The strange part is that I got my mid year review, and it was actually quite good. The little bit of programming I WAS allowed to do was well received. My department manager seems to be happy with what I am doing. So that's something.

I feel like the summer is slipping away and my time to get this room unpacked and organized is vanishing right out from under me. Also I'd hoped to have a couple of old friends over to see them and have them see our new digs, and the available weekends are dwindling.

Maybe next week this will all be over. I just want my rug!!

the hampster keeps falling off the wheel

So...

Bob is still not feeling great, but might come by tomorrow to do a little bit. Contrary to what you might think, I really DO want him to rest and be 100% before he starts again.

My family room is a large empty shell. If (Btb) doesn't tile the floor and build the platform for the fireplace, then I can't get the carpet put in. Which means I can't put the main desk into the spot where it will be, and therefore I can't get the main desktop PC back out. Tay was right when she said you should NEVER EVER dismantle your pc.... it's killing me.

In the meantime I finally broke down and reconnected the cable modem & wireless router and I'm using a five year old laptop; it might as well be 1000 years old - this puppy CRAWLS along like I can not believe. Sometimes I open yahoo and the window immediately closes. Fun times.

Day 49. The word of the day is "discouraged."

Day 48

Not a great day, Btb was in the hospital over the weekend. He should be fine, but please send him "get well" vibes.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Fireplace

This is how I would like my fireplace to look... if I had a cabin up in Lake Placid. It's just not right for my house, but I do love it.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Porch

My new shelf, with some flowers I got at the supermarket today because I liked the ceramic pot and I love daisies. .

The floor of the original deck is grey. We decided to do grey walls inside the screen porch, and the window trim and baseboards will be white. (The floor will be a grey indoor outdoor rug, which I didn't want at first but its our only option because of the way part of the original deck is insdie the screenhouse.)

Then we decided to paint the top half of the 4th wall (house / no windows) white because B thought the clock/thermometer/ barometer would look nicer on the white than the grey.

It's just so nice to sit out here and not be a mosquito buffet.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Other plans

My son is mentally redesigning the screen porch.

"The DJ table goes over here, we'll replace this ceiling light fixture with a disco ball, we'll shine colored lights from these corners, the soda machine will be here, and the margarita bar will be over here for the old people "(points at ME!)

Hmmm.

Random things

So, this and that....

• Look at my knobs... pretty, huh? I wanted something that kind of goes with the light... the CORRECT LIGHT... which is now illuminating my kitchen table
• Rugs will be 2 - 3 weeks. I want my house back together. Arrgh.
• Hmm... I just read about the Atom smasher ... well, it's been nice knowing y'all.

Day 38 and 39

My daughter sent me a text message yesterday when she got home: "The house looks awesome!"

They started painting the walls, "pebbled courtyard" which is sort of a taupe but looks really nice on the walls. They also put up crown molding which is beautiful; we didn't have that in this room before, just some skinny quarter round.

Aaaaand BtB cleaned the paint off of both the leather chairs and the desk. (there were some quiet guity looks among the crew over his assertion that "no, we always tarp"... I think he just wasn't at my house when the guys got roller-ing.)

They also assured me that no, we know that's the porch light, we had to move the location and wanted to give you something and blah blah. Ok, as long as everything ends up in the right place. The porch light is now ON THE PORCH but not working yet, due to half the wiring not quite being finished, but the last screen is finally in so I'm going out there to have a cup of tea now.

Today I have to go spend more money. We need to buy a fireplace, and cabinet knobs, and confirm the carpeting and find out when that will be installed, so I can get most of my life back.

Not a great day 37

In addition to multiple other discouraging things today, I came home to find the new PORCH light installed in my KITCHEN. (As in, remember THIS ? They didn't. )

Also some painting got started, which we were told wouldn't happen until Monday, so that we could clear the room; they started with the ceiling - which makes perfect sense. But there were things in the room still which didn't get covered... there are paint splatters on the good desk and the good leather recliner.

Not helpful to a harmonious evening.

FINALLY

I got the guys pizza today (as a bribe to HURRY UP, more or less). After we finished, BtB just tore down the huge plastic tarp that has been dividing the new construction from the existing family room.

The kids and I promptly lost our minds about how big the room is. Lost. Our. Minds.

Or 36

I'm not sure anymore what day it is. All day yesteryday I thought it was Friday and kept saying to myself "No, Carly, it's Wednesday." For the benefit of anyone as confused as I am, yesterday was Tuesday. I also don't know if it's day 35 or day 36 of this work but it is clearly Time To Be Done. And we're soooo not done.




So these are the new cabinets. Opinions? Please share. Yes, all of you lurkers, you really need to talk to me today.

Day 35

The white stuff is already gone. The guy (Bob the Builder's assistant) said "you know, I stood there for 10 minutes wondering if I should get white, or the kind that you can paint." Ooooops. At least he was really nice about it.

I also found out I can paint the inside walls of the porch so I don't have to keep the tan color (blagh). Yay.

Now about those cupboards....

And oh, it's been 7 weeks and we're NOT DONE. Breathe in, breathe out.

if only I hadn't packed the tylenol

... I could use some right now.

I noticed they started putting wainscotting on the two kitchen walls that don't have cabinets. (Good). It's white. (huh?) It seems to be a "finished" paneling product, and not wood that we can paint the medium/dark green I have picked out. (Bad!)

Hoping that's why they stopped...

Wondering if the sink or the faucets will be the next headache.

Still not decided on shade of cupboards, but my big pots actually DO fit. Hmmm. Bringing in two expert opinions tomorrow. One (my neighbor who is VERY honest) knows the question - do you notice? The other, my mom, doesn't, and that will be a good test. Will she say anything? If she notices, she definitely will. For once I'm banking on that. For the record, Suzy, who admits to being VERY picky about things and is a very talented artist (shades of color matter!) didn't even notice and thinks SHE could live with it. I'm weighing the options:

• leave them; nothing in life is perfect and it MIGHT not be noticable once the counter's in (i know, I'm kidding myself here)
• rip them out, send them back, and get it over with (but the boxes are long gone, giant headache, extra time, etc)
• bite the bullet and get new top ones as soon as possible to match and stop this nonsense of trying to match 11 year old cabinets!! (means more packing of STUFF and so on, not to mention co$t)

don't know, don't know....

Day 34

I walked in, saw my new cupboards and thought, "Uh-oh".

They're ONE slight shade off, from the upper ones. I am hoping that when the dark countertop is on, it will be ok. We'll see. I'm trying not to think about it right now.

Uh-oh number two is that I really DON"T like the rolling drawer inserts in the pots & pans cupboard. I may take the lower one out. I feel like they waste a ton of space. I can't decide. I just know for a fact that my big pasta pot WON"T fit in it.

Hmmph.

Ducky

this crappy photo* actually shows a mama and 15 VERY new baby ducks. Every one of those things that looks like a rock is a little fuzzy puffball of cuteness that will someday make a lovely meal. I kid, I kid. Is a mama duck considered an "adult?"

* I really need to stop dropping my Blackberry.

Tonight I got home just in time to go for a walk with my kid, who is getting very good at skipping rocks. It was pretty damn nice to wander around without worrying about what PTA emails might be waiting for me back at the ranch.

Today, at the house, more sheetrock taping, and putting up of "stuff" on inside walls of porch. Not sure what it's called but looks like (fake?) cedar... Tired, can't formulate proper description.

All but ONE screen is installed on the porch, so no sitting out there just yet.

Day 29

Sheet rock on my walls. Taping tomorrow, cabinets maybe monday. Wheee! Porch is progressing (trim, soffits, stuff like that).


Other things going on:

Turns out Thing 1 was smart to skip pool day. Thing 2's friend took a big scary fall off of one of those playground merry go rounds (which was spinning at the time, d'oh!) and got carried away in an ambulance just to be checked, while 100 kids stood there crying. Sounds like great fun! Friend is pretty much "fine". Maybe I won't have to worry about pool day anymore. Snarky but true.

One and a half days of school left... if I survive them without smacking someone. Hey, miracles can happen!

Planning a party for the first of my friends at work to leave, but this is one who quit, he didn't get fired. Yeah, stick it to the man! Ahem. I mean, we'll miss you. First beer's on me.

This post brought to you by Tylenol

I'm working from home today; a complex negotiation took place with Thing 1, who didn't want to be at pool day today and agreed to do laundry; it is now not being done without frequent reminders to "get your butt in there and do it". The tv really WILL still be there when you bring your fried eyeballs back to it.

There is quite a lot of banging emanating from the back of the house. Also the occasional cussword (wait, no, that's me). Today is boring things like insulation. The photos will be almost nothing. But next week, there might be cabinets. Ooooh. (sigh... more packing.)

Also tonight, a transition meeting for PTA. I'm thinking of giving each family a Tylenol rating(one tablet, two, or three) in the school directory, based on whether they bounce checks, criticize the lunch program, complain about fundraisers, etc. All those little charming things that make being an officer so easy.