The Countdown...

Our final inspection is June 1 so the end really is in sight. The carpet will also be installed that day so right now Pete is finishing touch-up paint, installing kitchen cabinet doors and lots of little things to get ready. The furnace inspector was out today and Pete put shelving, etc. in the closets last weekend.

PB & BS

I know I keep saying this, but we are seriously almost done with the house. Pete is going room by room, finishing paint, trim, installing light fixtures, etc. Our carpet should be coming in the next two weeks and all fixtures (sinks, toilets) are set. We still have to install the stove once we finish the cabinets, plug in the fridge (and hook up the water for the ice maker) and install the dryer. We can see the light.

And not a moment too soon. Emmett is hitting the terrible twos so caring for him can be a two man job. The poor kid cries over everything - I'm not even sure if he knows what he wants half the time. But he still is cute. Last week at day care one of the kids had an aunt come to pick him up. Emmett walked up to her and said "me, Emmett". It is pretty cute until you consider that he is introducing himself to strangers...

Wynne is sassy as always. And her BS meter is working. Last weekend my sister and I took the kids up to see my brother. It is a long drive and we were going to be in the car over lunch so I packed PB&J sandwiches. Wynne told me that she did not like peanut butter, wanted only a jelly sandwich. The quick-thinking mom I am I told her that she needs peanut butter. Jelly is junk food -- they both start with J. Peanut butter has protein and they both start with P. So eat your sandwich. I was pretty proud of my made-up reasoning and she quickly said "Mom, that doesn't make any sense." Busted. No fooling this kid.

Losing it

I am losing my mind. I think that all the brain cells that you kill in college and during your crazy single days do not die immediately. Rather, it happens all at once when you turn 36.

I usually remember EVERYTHING. It was kind of a joke and a little scary. Now, not so much. Today for instance:

Left work to take Wynne to her doc appt. We have been to this office many, many times and in fact I lived across the street from this office for 1.5 years.

We were running late to begin with, but I had ten minutes to get five minutes away. Instead, the trip took almost 20 minutes. Her school is right off of I35E, as is the exit for the doc appt. But for some reason I thought it was off of I-694. So we are on 35, I take the exit east for 694. when I hit Maplewood I realized I had gone the wrong way. No prob, I will just get off the exit and back on going west. Only problem is that I am on the WRONG highway. Once I was well past where I thought the exit would be, I realized my mistake and took the next exit. I had an idea of where to go next but decided to use my GPS. That's when Wynne asked if I had any idea where I was going. I lied and told her I knew exactly what I was doing.

We got there, doc still saw us even though we were late, and we headed back to school. After I drove half-way across the parking lot Wynne reminded me that I had not buckled her in!!!!!! I am a menace. Had to look twice when I got home to make sure she was not still in the backseat.

Tiling

We (mostly Pete) have accomplished a lot over the last few days. The biggest project is the kitchen floor. Pete has spent the last few days working on this -- as I write he is finishing the tile in the first floor bathroom. Yea!

He also added some tiles near the front door so people don't muck up the rug. He added a cement board on top of the hardwood so if we ever get enough money to refinish the floors we can just rip up the board -- good thinking on his part.

I took Friday off and helped by putting another coat of paint in the upstairs bedrooms. The color really pops with the second coat and will look even better once Pete does the finish work.

FLUSH!

Wahoo! A new level of civility! We no longer have the flush the toilet with a bucket of water. Pete attached the tank -- a big day at the new house! We also figured out the problem with the cabinet color. Apparently Pete grabbed the wrong sample blue -- when he looked at the chips that we selected he realized he grabbed a blue that was several shades brighter than our original choice. He picked up the original blue/grey and it looks really nice.

Pete is taking Wednesday-Friday off to tile the kitchen floor -- yea! I am going to take off on Friday to do some painting. Things continue to move along!

Cabinets

Luckily we bought sample sizes of the paint. Pete tried the cabinets both ways -- blue frames with cream doors and cream frames with blue doors. Both are just a bit over the top. Pete thinks they look "country". I think they look a little like they belong in a dollhouse. Pete has a good solution. We are going to keep the cream and try a tan or a brown. It will go with the floor tiles and we are thinking of a greenish countertop so that may look really nice. We'll see....

Painting....

The house is painted! Well, mostly. After weeks of priming, Pete and I sat down to pick out colors. I spent last weekend in Kenosha with the kids so that gave Pete the entire weekend to paint. The House looks great. As you can see, we picked a yellow for the walls and hall leading up to the bedrooms. The bedrooms are a wheat color, both bathrooms are light green and the kitchen is grey. We still have the cabinets to paint -- they will be cream frames with blue/grey doors. Pete bought samples of the paint and is putting it on the cabinets/frames so we can try it out. We'll see how it looks.

Pete is spending this weekend still working on trim, priming the doors (cabinet and regular) and cutting in the corners.

We also decided that we really should add a dishwasher. We've been researching similar homes for rent in the area and many have dishwashers. We figure as long as we are making a mess, we might as well do it now. The configuration of the kitchen requires us to put it next to the sink, which will only give us a small kitchen sink, but I know I would trade a small sink for a dishwasher -- hoping others will too.

We still have to tile the kitchen floor, carpet or repair the hardwood and some detail work. And now that the weather is nicer, it is almost time to seed the yard, as there are many patches without grass. We also should add some bushes to the front of the house. The list keeps growing. Some of the outside stuff can wait until we get a renter.

Pete is hoping to get another week off of work soon as he thinks he can knock out a lot of the remaining work if he can plow through for several days straight.