Two weeks between posts...

I can't believe it has been two weeks since I've posted. We've been so busy I have not had any spare time. I had a trip to Milwaukee and a separate trip to Madison within the same week. A few more trips coming up (one night in Chicago this week and two nights in Fargo the week of Nov. 10) Hopefully I can stick close to home after that.

We also celebrated Wynne's b-day with not one but two parties. One for "family" and one for "friends". Considering that most of Wynne's "friends" are family this was a bit silly. But we did have fun and she got lots of great presents so she is pretty psyched. She is covered in bruises thanks to her new bike so hopefully her doc won't call CPS after her 4-year-old check up tomorrow.

Oh - and the house-- that is going well too. Pete was able to work non-stop last weekend since I took Wynne and Emmett with me to Milwaukee and other than coming home for meals and helping to prep for and attend Wynne's party, he was also at the house this weekend. We're finally "legal" now that the bank paid the vacant building fee and we were able to get a permit. Chad the Plumber will come out tomorrow to get that going and we will be having the electricians out after that.

Pete got some painting done on the outside of the house-- it looks a million times better. Some of the shakes were not the right size and also not painted so they looked awful. Pete got some that are the correct sizes and painted them. Unfortunately the paint we bought ($42!!!!) did not match exactly but it still looks great. He spent yesterday doing lots of things that he won't be able to do once the ground freezes --

Sunday and Monday

Pete spent all day Sunday at the new house - doing more to get the house ready to be painted, buying and putting in storm windows and breaking up what he originally thought was just a small sidewalk. It ended up being many inches thick and was a much more difficult job than he thought. He was hoping to stuff the giant dumpster will all possible debris. But he ended up practically killing himself. He was noodle-like when he came home. I thought I was going to have to carry him to bed.

We headed back to work on Monday. Our contractor was at the house this afternoon to get started on some of the projects we can't do ourselves. When Wynne, Emmett and I were pulling up to the house after work Pete was headed out. He had the new backdoor sticking out of his car so he was either on his way to get that installed or he is running away to someplace in need of a door. I will keep you posted.

I gave Wynne my old jewelry box so she would have a place to keep her jewels and hair decor. She decided to deck out her hair and is trying to figure out a Halloween costume that will allow her to wear lots of clips in her hair. Here is one of her favorite 'dos.

At dinner Emmett decided that he wanted my apple - I offered it to him thinking that he would take a bite or two and get bored - but he ate almost the whole thing (including the stem - ugh)

Paint chips and other snacks

So Pete spent most of the day at the house -- power washing the deck, gutters and house. He also scraped the lead paint off of some of the old windows (more things checked off the "code compliance" list.) Our inspector actually said that lead paint chips taste sweet so that is why the kids like to eat them. Yum.

Speaking of kids. I spent the day with my two. We had a good time though Wynne was on a roll this afternoon. She started off the streak of naughtiness by secretly eating candy that had been in a treasure box she made for Pete years ago. I did not even know it was there (or I would have eaten it long ago...) Then, as I was cooking I heard "Help me" coming from Emmett's room. She was straddled over the crib, one leg in , one leg out. Then she settled down to do some art projects. I was still cooking (making dinners for next week) and she proudly showed me her masterpiece -- she cut pictures of herself and Emmett that I was planning to send to my mom and glued them to construction paper. Good thing she is so cute.

More Demo

Friday was a great day at the house -- we had a "crew" to finish up our demolition. Bob (Pete's dad) and Al (our brother-in-law) came by for the day.

One of the best surprises was upstairs. When we removed the carpet we found some really beautiful floors. Don't think we'll have to do anything other than clean them - finally - something easy!

We also finished the upstairs bathroom - all the walls are off and ready for the new plumbing. I learned a few things about working with a face mask on.

When wearing a face mask you should not:

chew gum and blow bubbles

have anything smelly for lunch

have a runny nose

smile at someone 'cause they can't see your mouth anyway...

We also took full advantage of the dumpster and piled in all the junk in and around the house.

Demo

Our giant dumpster arrived on Wednesday so Pete was able to start demolition. I had to work, but he was able to remove all of the random walls in the basement (not sure what there were used for, but lots of "grow lights" in one room (and no garden in the yard) leads us to one conclusion....



He also took the cabinets out of the downstairs bathroom and ordered replacement glass for the windows that needed to be repaired.



I came by at the end of the day on Thursday to help with the demo. My job was to pry the tiles off the wall in the upstairs bathroom. (The very same bathroom I cleaned just a few days ago. I suspect I am being assigned "busy work".) I carefully removed the tiles so as not to damage the walls. Then we took down the walls. Hmmmmm. OK, not all of the walls. Guess I did not need to be so careful. But tearing down the walls was fun. I was a bit more tentative than Pete (tapping against the wall vs. smashing the wall) but it is done.

Time to scrape the walls...

Our giant dumpster did not arrive as expected today so we had to put off the demolition for another day. We decided to start the looooong process of getting rid of the wallpaper. There were many layers of wallpaper, paint, lemon creme, more paper, etc. The dining room was actually not that bad despite four hours of spray, spray, scrape, scrape. repeat.

The living room is proving to be more difficult. We only got part of one wall done before we had to call it quits. I did get a tip for a special "recipe" that involves downy fabric softener to remove paper. Will try that the next time. Have to go back to work tomorrow so Pete will get to start demo on his own.

Run, Winnie, Run

Wynne took part in the "Toddler Trot" at the Medtronic Family Days, which is the race packet pick-up and family fun day for the Twin Cities Marathon. We went because the AHA was there doing healthy family activities (and also a good reason to get out of the house.) Wynne managed to spill chocolate milk all over this shirt so I'm glad I got a picture of it before it was ruined in case the Oxyclean does not work. They grouped toddlers by age to run 50 yards. It was pretty cute. They also had a diaper dash which is basically a turtle race with babies. They plop them in the middle of a circle and the one who crawls out first wins. Most just cried until their parents came and rescued them.

Killing the fence to nowhere

Today was another good day at the house. We spent another day outside -- pulled up the chain link fence "to nowhere". Basically this is the beginning of a fence that partially blocks the yard. Only a very lazy (or very dim) kid or dog would not be able to figure out how to get out of the yard. It looked like it was going to be a daunting job but the first pole came out easily. That was the end of easy street. But Pete finally figured it out -- the key to pulling up an eight-foot pole (why such a long pole!?!?!) is banging the pole with another pole to let the "vibrations" loosen it (according to Pete) and also soak the ground.

We also finished "operation rock relocation" and added mulch and edging in front of the house. We did some more general yard clean up, including trimming the weeds along with edge of the yard. You might wonder why we would not pull them up -- well -- they actually look like bushes (from far away at least) and we won't be tackling this project until Spring at the earliest. Pete finished cleaning and repairing the gutters and adding gutter guards.

We are going to have to make a better plan for eating during this project. Yesterday it was Taco Bell for lunch and today Dominoes delivered. I was thinking that all of this manual labor would burn calories to make the meals a wash. Then it occurred to me that when you take a look at a construction site most of the guys are not in tip-top share. So we'll have to work on that.

After working on the house all day, Wynne and I headed to the Y for our new favorite class. Family Drums Alive - it is super fun. Picture exercise balls held in place with the square step risers. Add a pair of drum sticks and some fun music and you have a great time....Well not so much this week. There are two instructors and they alternate weeks. Today's teacher was not so good and Wynne was bored really quickly. She sat on the sidelines and watched -- only coming back to ask if she could have a snack because "watching people exercise makes her hungry". that's my gal...

Link to photos of the house

Want to see the "before" pictures? Follow this link:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=a50pu45r.9hjvzjgz&x=0&y=bysb5p&localeid=en_US

Day One -- New House

I am exhausted.

So Pete and I decided that we don't have enough to do so we bought a foreclosed house. We are going to fix it up for rental property.

There is a LOT to do so we started with the basics - cleaning the bathrooms. It was gross. Had my face mask and even some goggles, though I don't think I used the goggles correctly.

They kept fogging up - maybe the face mask acted as a funnel to trap my breath in the goggles....I literally could not see. I hope they are defective because if I just used them incorrectly I am not sure what that says about me. Both bathrooms look much better and are company-ready! (If company likes using a bathroom with no door).

PS - C.L.R. is THE BEST thing to use on rust stains in a toilet. Two words - sparkling clean.

After making our facilities usable, it was time for landscaping. I learned how to use a pick ax -- really thought I was going to plunge the blunt end into my head as I was trying to loosen errant trees, but luck was on my side.

Pete and I "fixed" some unfinished landscaping projects which involved picking up random piles of rocks throughout the yard and so much raking I am almost getting a blister.

I even crawled under the deck to clear out some rocks, leaves and other junk. I was on a roll. Very glad that I did not meet up with any snakes or other creepy crawlies.

Pete re-keyed the locks, put a new door on the garage (impressive), crawled up on the roof to clean the bushes out of the gutters and gave me helpful hints (don't leave the rake tines up in the yard or you will end up as a tragic comedy.) I'm embarrassed that I even needed to be told that.

More landscaping tomorrow and Pete will put gutter guards up -- back on the roof again. We'll see if I am able to move after all of that fun.