What a busy couple of months. So we bought this foreclosure house which has occupied pretty much every waking hour aside from work. It's structurally sound but a combination of neglect and a former owner who thought he could DIY a lot of this stuff equaled a lot of work for us. We had to fix the plumbing, yank out old wiring and satellite cables, rewire a bedroom and a bathroom, repair the drywall in almost every room (and ceiling), paint every everlovin' surface of the house, play some more plumbing "where is this leak coming from?" games, clean out the gutters (organic sediment since 1994, probably disposed of some good fossils), rehabilitate the lawn and kill some grubs, install some appliances purchased on Craigslist, fix said appliances purchased on Craigslist, and I don't even remember what else. It culminated in having electricians discover exposed live wires (thx former owner) all over our attic. My favorite part was when my wife's aunt came over and, looking over the ladders and tarps and paint cans and dust, asked who was doing all this work for us - who our contractor was. I am my contractor. And I'm a pretty unsatisfyingly slow one.
It's been a learning experience for sure. I had no idea how to do 90% of these jobs, but thanks to the internet and a couple of how-to books—that sounds safe, right? :-) Makes ya want to live here. Anyway, I have tools for everything now. I'm mostly impressed by the fact that I can fix walls. Got a hole in a wall? I can make it disappear.
For all this work we're getting a nice brick home on a beautiful lot that's double or triple the average lot around here in the city. The kids love it. It's close to family and my job. It's good.
Now we have to unpack and settle in.
In other news, baby number 5 is slated to emerge in August. My wife is feeling okay, taking a lot of naps. It's hard to schedule midwife appointments in with all the other work and house stuff going on.
In work news, I am forgoing the BSN program. I'm a bit busy, no? I am thinking about doing a little CCRN preparation. The coworkers were listening to the Laura Gasparis review CDs (well, mp3s these days) and she was hilarious.
Thanks for the well-wishes and the concerned comments and emails. We're doing well. Just really busy!![]()
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It's been a learning experience for sure. I had no idea how to do 90% of these jobs, but thanks to the internet and a couple of how-to books—that sounds safe, right? :-) Makes ya want to live here. Anyway, I have tools for everything now. I'm mostly impressed by the fact that I can fix walls. Got a hole in a wall? I can make it disappear.
For all this work we're getting a nice brick home on a beautiful lot that's double or triple the average lot around here in the city. The kids love it. It's close to family and my job. It's good.
Now we have to unpack and settle in.
In other news, baby number 5 is slated to emerge in August. My wife is feeling okay, taking a lot of naps. It's hard to schedule midwife appointments in with all the other work and house stuff going on.
In work news, I am forgoing the BSN program. I'm a bit busy, no? I am thinking about doing a little CCRN preparation. The coworkers were listening to the Laura Gasparis review CDs (well, mp3s these days) and she was hilarious.
Thanks for the well-wishes and the concerned comments and emails. We're doing well. Just really busy!