The bad news...

I'll start with the bad, yucky, make-me-ill, make-me-wanna-cry news...

After over a month of insisting that our kitchen smells like wet vermiculite (and being assured and reassured by our contractor that the area above our stove was cleaned out), I finally told G. that I'd wiped some brown drips off of the soffit area to the left of the stove and it came back a few days later. He said he was sick of waiting for the contractor to open up that area, and he'd just do it.

So he used the jigsaw to cut open one space between studs and found wet vermiculite. He kept going, getting to this:

(eventually he had seven neat little holes cut in every space between studs)

He sucked out five more HUGE garbage bags of wet vermiculite and insulation bags and building material scraps. And here's what some of the building material scraps look like:
Uh, yeah... That would be mold. Lots of mold--on just about everything stuffed into the soffit space.

Imagine a combination of drywall dust, paint dust, and vermiculite dust, and then imagine it all over my previously-clean kitchen--dishes and all.

And imagine the whole house once again permeated by the nauseating smell of wet (moldy) vermiculite.

After G. took out all the wet stuff he could, he got out the sprayer and sprayed the inside areas with mildicide and bleach, and we're letting it dry overnight (hope it doesn't rain or get really humid :( )

And I called the contractor. He's got someone coming in the morning to supposedly fix that drywall and to clean up all the ceilings in our house where the previous drywallers did some patching. With any luck, we may be able to paint and start to reclaim the rest of our house this weekend.

I'm still trying not to cry...

(p.s. good news coming tomorrow--it's about T, but I'm too tired to post tonight)

I am physically ill....

short story: we found more wet vermiculite and even more mold

T's Well Child Check

We finally got around to scheduling T's 9 year old well-child check (only two weeks late).



He's 54 1/2 inches tall (only 1 1/2" up from last year!)
He's 80 lb. (up 7 from last year)

I think he's due for a growth spurt! He used to be one of the tallest in his class, but not anymore.

Other than that, he's perfectly healthy and handsome!

Girls' Room: carpeted

We'll start moving things in today (dressers, etc.) and hanging window coverings. The goal is to have the girls in it this weekend.

Girls' Room: painted!

Not much to describe... we painted everything (but kept the color the same on one wall and the trim).
Carpet installers will be here at 8:00 am tomorrow. THAT was cutting it close! I hope it dries enough to not create a big mess when they're installing...

Girls' Room: stripped

Over the weekend, when we weren't fixing up our new bedroom (or going to soccer games or hosting book club), we worked on the girls' new room.

We had to empty it (most things went up to our new room, but a lot of them will be rearranged to the kids' rooms), and then G. ripped up the old carpet and pad.

(we cut the old carpet to fit in the smaller storage area, where it works out great):

And then pulled out staples and nails and washed everything.


Today we paint and tomorrow the carpet is installed!

Remodel: The Bedroom is Done!

OK, there are a few more tiny things, and we don't have anything hung on the wall (we'll order some photos to frame and want something big and funky to hang over the big wall that the bed's on), but we moved up Friday night and spent most of the weekend doing all those last things to make it liveable. We:
varnished the last window
hung shades (including a trip back when they cut one wrong)
hung curtain rods, ironed curtains, hung curtains
moved LOTS of heavy furniture, assembling some new stuff
moved lots of clothing, rearranging so that things fit (our new closet is about half the size of our old one)

OK, so here's the grand tour, starting at the doorway and moving clockwise around the room:

*little "sitting area"; we might bring in the matching obnoxious (but very comfy) green chair that's currently in G's office so we can both sit and relax :)
*then there's a big wall with not much other than windows; then the bed, flanked by two cute little bedstands :)
*if you walked out the door to the bathroom (on the right in the picture above), you'd look in and see:
*in the little nook/corner is the "entertainment center" (a splurge to get the cool wall-mount thing):
*and then turning to look back to the first wall and the sitting area:There's still some miscelaneous stuff to find places for and put away, but we're up there!

Tomorrow the shower door gets installed, so I'll do final pictures of the bathroom then.

Remodel: The Couch Shuffle

OK, so I showed pictures of how we moved the futon from the basement upstairs into the office/computer room/Grandma's room:
But this left a basement rec room without a couch. Our blue sofa (how we love it...), which was purchased when we were first married, has seen better days. It has springs poking out of it (we've snipped them) and rips more than I can mend (I've tried!). However, it makes a wonderful basement rec room couch:
Moving a couch out of the living room left a big hole--not to mention not enough places for everyone to sit. So we'd been looking at sofas for about the last two months. We wanted something cheap (uh, yeah... that home equity loan? let's just say that remodeling costs a LOT more than the construction costs) because we can't afford much, and our kids are really too young for us to expect them to do things like keep feet off of furniture and not eat in the living room. We were hoping for something not awful and micro-fibery (like the couch we bought 2 1/2 years ago to replace a recliner sofa that ate children's legs). FINALLY last week we found something.... Cream-colored leather, removable cushions, and $448:
The shuffle is done! :)

In other remodeling news, we're putting our bedroom together. No pictures today because I want to wait until we have everything moved and installed and re-wired and such. However, we need to get a move on, since the carpet will be installed in the girls' room on Tuesday and we need to clear out that room, rip out carpet, and paint!

First Knitting meme I've seen!

Bold for stuff you've done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you're not planning on doing.

Afghan

I-cord

Garter stitch

Knitting with metal wire

Shawl

Stockinette stitch

Socks: top-down

Socks: toe-up

Knitting with camel yarn

Mittens: Cuff-up

Mittens: Tip-down

Hat

Knitting with silk

Moebius band knitting

Participating in a KAL

Sweater

Drop stitch patterns

Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn

Slip stitch patterns

Knitting with banana fiber yarn

Domino knitting (=modular knitting)

Twisted stitch patterns

Knitting with bamboo yarn

Two end knitting

Charity knitting

Knitting with soy yarn

Cardigan

Toy/doll clothing

Knitting with circular needles

Baby items

Knitting with your own handspun yarn

Slippers

Graffitti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)

Continental knitting

Designing knitted garments

Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)

Lace patterns

Publishing a knitting book

Scarf

Teaching a child to knit

American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)

Knitting to make money

Button holes

Knitting with alpaca

Fair Isle knitting

Norwegian knitting

Dying with plant colours

Knitting items for a wedding

Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies...)

Knitting socks (or other small tubular items)on two circulars

Olympic knitting

Knitting with someone elses handspun yarn

Knitting with dpns

Holiday related knitting

Teaching a male how to knit

Bobbles

Knitting for a living

Knitting with cotton

Knitting smocking

Dying yarn

Steeks

Knitting art

Knitting two socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars simultaneously

Fulling/felting

Knitting with wool

Textured knitting

Kitchener BO

Purses/bags

Knitting with beads

Swatching

Long Tail CO

Entrelac Knitting and purling backwards

Machine knitting

Knitting with selfpatterning/selfstriping/variegating yarn

Stuffed toys

Baby items

Knitting with cashmere

Darning

Jewelry

Knitting with synthetic yarn

Writing a pattern

Gloves

Intarsia

Knitting with linen

Knitting for preemies

Tubular CO

Freeform knitting

Short rows

Cuffs/fingerless mitts/armwarmers

Pillows

Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine

Rug

Knitting on a loom

Thrummed knitting

Knitting a gift

Knitting for pets

Shrug/bolero/poncho

Knitting with dog/cat hair

Hair accessories

Knitting in public

Remodel: Almost there...

I've lost track of days...

Workers were back today to put in our final window and finish the siding and downspouts!

From the outside:

(I can't believe how much greenery has filled in since the last outside picture I shared here.)

And from the inside (the trim is stained, but not installed yet):

And here's a picture of the computer room, being used by M. and a friend (I LOVE this extra space!):
(added: 9:00 pm)
And we just put together new furniture:

Groceries 5/15/07

Total: $108.65
Savings: $40.35
Number of Items: 62
Pick N Save

Time to plant the annuals!

Part of my mother's day gift was a flat of impatiens. I planted them early this morning, as it's supposed to be REALLY warm today (possibly breaking records) and to rain all day tomorrow.

I'm always amazed at how well impatiens do in our soil and shade. We can't get much else to grow.

Last year I didn't take pictures of the impatiens in their infancy, so I wanted to do it this year.

Here's my annual bed:



(if you want to see what it should fill out like, here's a link to the picture from last year)

And I had a few extras, so I put them in front of my bulb bed:

Remodel: Another Weekend Update

It was another weekend filled with "little things"

We got all the doorknobs installed:
G. put the towel rack on the back of the bedroom door:
And he put up the weatherstrip and foam on the back of the storage area doors (they're not insulated, so it gets very hot--or cold--in there)
And then we set up one of the new dressers, which looks REALLY cool. On top of it you will notice the phone, modem, and router (and a baby monitor). G. wired the phone line and we got a second wireless desktop connection so that the main computer doesn't need to be physically attached to the router.
That meant that I could set up the computer in the "existing bedroom", which will from now on be known as the computer room (or the guest room, or Grandma's room):
Note the old kitchen table for doing homework (kids or G--for correcting papers). We also brought up the futon:And the file cabinets, that used to be in the attic due to lack of space, are now out in the open:
I've spent much of the evening tossing out stuff from those file cabinets (like owner's manuals to things we haven't owned for years) and shredding things with our names and credit card info. on them. I still have lots to go!

We also picked up some new blinds for the kitchen and dining room (not hung yet), and a flat of impatiens that I really should have planted today (since it's supposed to be 80 degrees and storming tomorrow). Not enough hours in the day!

But the upstairs is getting to be NICE! :) It's exciting...

Reading: Yarn Harlot

Although I've been a daily reader of The Yarn Harlot's blog for over a year, I finally started reading her books. I'm starting with this one:

Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter
by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

M's summer 'do

M before her haircut:

M after her haircut and style:

M the day after her haircut (no styling):

Reading: The Time Traveler's Wife

FANTASTIC! Hard to put it down...

The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger