February flew past, sort of. Pretty much all of my mental energy has been split between house things and trying to get a certain stubborn boy to use the toilet. So frustrating. None of the usual motivators were helping, so in desperation I started confiscating his toys. That at least got an emotional reaction from him. *sigh*
Siding went on slowly in the cold. Vinyl gets brittle in sub zero temps and they said it would crack if they accidentally hit it with a hammer.
Hooray for railings and a somewhat clean garage!
We spent a cold and snowy Saturday out at the house, playing in the snow and cleaning inside.
Snack picnics are important.
They are usually pretty good help.
It always takes longer than we think it will, but when it's starting to get dark and the moon is rising it's worth it. :)
Unfortunately, the toy jail keeps growing...
Daniel is a bit of a pyro and burned the scrap pile one still day. That's a thorny locust stump, so hopefully it will also not try and grown back.
Ducts have arrived! And also holes in terrible places because hvac seems to think it's impossible to heat and cool a two story house without two separate units and we don't want to pay for two separate hvac units and also I want an attic not another mechanical room on the top of my house. But what do I know.
Cadence is my most faithful companion when I go out to the house... probably because the guys let her 'help.'
Do we have most of our furniture cut out of graph paper in 1/4" scale? Yes, of course. ha.
The electricians got started! So fun. For the record, I have read three wiring books and understand everything they have done so far... I could have done this part.
I ordered one antique reproduction sink. It would be really cool to fill the house with real antique sinks and doors and do an unfitted kitchen, buuut all of those things would take time to find things that were exactly the right size and time is money and we have neither in abundance. Plus I would like our plumbers and carpenters to still speak to us when we are done.😏 I haven't told the electricians about my light fixtures yet...
Large holes for trunk lines mean I was back to saying 'stay away from the holes!' a lot again.
More siding in the cold.
The girls were invited to a fancy cousins tea party for Elodie's birthday.
They had macarons, chai, chocolate covered strawberries... so fancy.
And then they were all done being ladylike and broke out the swords.
Perrin really wanted to play in their sandbox. 😄
Some of the rest of us went skating again. The ice was bumpier since it had snowed and thawed a few times, but still fun. The girls spent a lot of time collecting sweet gum pods from the neighbors tree.
We headed to the farm for supper and birthday parties. Perrin was so excited to open this box, and then it was EMPTY!
He was almost devastated, but Grandpa was right behind him with his new tool bench.
Now he can be a workerman too.
We have been debating what type of faux beams to order for the living room, a paintable plastic or real wood. I got a sample of the plastic version and tried Retique It liquid wood plus wood graining tools on it. I thought my quick and dirty first attempt was fairly convincing, Bob was less impressed. Anyway, they ended up being only a few hundred dollars different in price so we are going with real wood. (I'm not sad!)
I might have driven to Bloomington to pick up an antique iron-away ironing board that will barely fit in my laundry room (no thanks to HVAC). I don't really iron anyway, so it will just be there and look cool. haha.
I really need to make some doll clothes with Miri- she was trying so hard to make her baby a shirt and I do not have the time to help her do it right.
Insulation guys came and insulated a few spots that will be behind ductwork and pipes and things.
Cadence sweet talked Gage into taking her up in the lift. :P
Mr. Perrin is just something. Some days he insists that he doesn't want to get out of the van, he just wants to look at his favorite tree. Some days he will go visit it. 😜 Poor guy, his favorite tree is a walnut and is probably not long for this world because I want to plant a garden and walnuts poison the soil.
Mostly what got done in February was siding. We waited on mechanicals to get started or they were in and out for a few hours at a time and progress was slow.
Folding wire music stands are also bazookas.
We love making and mailing Valentines at our house!
Ok. So. The chimney. It's not a true masonry fireplace so the "chimney" is just covering the pipe in the wall. We were not going to spend $$$ on real brick so our options were siding or something fake. I don't think I've seen a stacked stone chimney on a four square around here, so that was out. I got a sample of faux brick that was almost like a sculpted foam board and that was exactly what it looked like: sculpted foam board. So then we got a sample of this fake brick vinyl siding. It's very fake and looks like plastic up close, but we knew that it would. It's very meh, but from a distance I like how it looks against the blue and it is better than blue siding all the way up the chimney. We'll just plant a bush at the base and maybe when it gets dusty and rained on it won't look so glaringly plastic. 😜
Of course, it was a special order and they shipped it to the store a box at a time over a month. And then when they delivered it all they forgot a few boxes and Perrin and I had to go to Menards and pick it up so they could put it up before the lift rental was up. adjhfs.
The actual real chimney is not aesthetic at all. :)
Mom and Dad brought the boys over for a change of scenery.
The scenery is mostly mud and dead grass.
Logan passed down some undies and Perrin likes the superheros... especially 'the Honk' (the Hulk to the rest of us... haha.)
Miri lost another tooth at school and came home with another tooth necklace! Huzzah!
We went down to the basement to this scene: a large hole with feet dangling, and this poor mutilated wall. Surely they could have tried to cut the studs off evenly?
I got to go to see Les Miserables again! Such a great musical and it was fun to go with Matt, Kyle, Michelle, and Nathan. We saw so many other familiar faces that night, I was amused. I had a great view of the stage until the guy in the seat in front of mine arrived... taller than me and a bushy head of hair. Ha. Oh well, the music is wonderful and the story is one of the best. It would be really fun if there was a sing it yourself Les MIz... it's very hard not to sing along. :)
Valentine's day was a great day. The kids and I delivered some Valentines. The girls usually would include Betty in their card making; this year we took Galen and family a cheesecake instead. Our dear neighbor lady is hoping to downsize soon and wanted to give the girls her Valentine train, so we came home with a Valentine too. :)
For supper we made our own heart pizzas.
The girls really, really wanted to make chocolate covered strawberries, so they did. :)
So festive.
Mr. Buster turned 4!! He wanted a puppy cake. A fluffy puppy cake. ha. ok, then. Poor little guy woke up on his birthday with a fever. Again. He was sick on his 3rd birthday too. So he laid around and slept most of the day.
I ran out to the house after school to see what was going on- Tim and Asa were plumbing.
HVAC guys stuck this massive supply and return in our bedroom. bah humbug. They were going to put it on the other side of the room, so we moved the door, then they put it over here and it totally messed up my furniture arrangement. (I know, I know, how unimportant...) But there is only so much wall to put a dresser with a mirror on, and I didn't really want to have to put the bed in front of a window again. And if we are going to have this big new house I would like to not have the furniture so close together that I can't open a dresser drawer if I'm standing directly in front of the dresser. Anyway. I asked the carpenters to move the door back, and the furniture will all fit, even though the bed will be blocking a window. It's fine, it will help sell the old house illusion, right?
And getting new furniture is not an option- my
Grandpa died in that bed! 😆
Bugging Gage... he's very patient. :P
Perrin wasn't interested in supper, but his fever broke and he perked up enough to open Birthday presents that night. So excited for more 'battle guys.'
And a tank for the 'tan team.' The tan team never gets to win though...
He didn't want to eat cake, but he did want to blow out candles, germs and all.
I started stripping my pocket doors with help from my little sidekick. I used smart strip for the first time and it's great! No VOCs and water clean up might be the best thing ever.
'Kay-na' got some extra accompaniment when she was over one evening. :P
We had another big Saturday cleanup. Cadence got to pull trash out of the window wells.
The scrap pile grows again, and my Stine gloves are starting to get worn out.... mur.
Oh Miri. I had a rough afternoon at church. Perrin was being extra squirrely, none of the kids wanted to sit with me (except Perrin) and there were tears, then they all wanted to go home, but actually getting them out the door is a struggle... Perrin threw a fit because I wouldn't let him crawl on the dirty floor under the high chairs, and Miri was being a goose and split her chin open on a bench. I shoved a kleenex at her chin and we dragged them all out and didn't look at the damage until we got home. I ended up going out again for butterfly bandaids and superglue... decided to try liquid skin instead and it worked pretty well. *sigh*
We laughed when this paper came home. 🐊
Siding is done! They will do around the front door when the actual front door is put in.
Does it look like it's 100 years old, but has bathrooms, closets, and an attached garage? :D
Chimney cap got installed!
Troy and Alex trenched and hooked the well up to the house.
Slow and steady progress.... I'm not impatient yet but I'm getting there.
I ordered some toweling to make roller towels for the roller towel holder I got on ebay. 😏
The drywall crew wants a dumpster so I ordered one- I'm sure the guy in the office thinks I'm a total ditz. We tossed all of the shingle and siding scraps that were in the yard.
I'm glad I got the bigger dumpster.
Then we all worked on sweeping up inside the house. Well, mostly, there was some playing going on too.
So far, since we are doing very basic cabinets without any special extras, I haven't really known what the kitchen was going to be like. I figure Conrad knows what he's doing and I'll work with whatever we end up with. He showed me elevations for the bathrooms and kitchen this week and I am enamored. I don't know if a pretty kitchen will make me a better cook, or make me want to be in there more, but it can't hurt right? :P
HVAC guys are almost done and the electric company trenched and we have a live panel!
I'm really hoping they clean up some of their metal mess, because I don't want to.
Our weeks have been full this month between running kids to jazz band practice and scholastic bowl meets, trips to the house, middle school girls nights, piano lessons... Somewhere around his birthday, potty training started to go a little bit better. Hallelujah! The toys in toy jail are dwindling and I haven't had to add any. Perhaps we are finally coming out of the tunnel? We still need to get to the point where he will take himself to the bathroom and not need me to remind him or go in with him. Someday. They tell me he won't go to kindergarten in diapers.
Blessings.
