A Fresh Sidewalk

Sidewalk
Originally uploaded by bicyclemonkey.

Well the city finished with the sidewalk. They now just have to fill in the trenches on either side of the walk (and of course, remove the port-a-potty). Now it's the other side of the streets turn!

I wish we could get the bathroom done as fast as the sidewalk did.

Where The Sidewalk Ends...

Since the sidewalks in front of our house (and several others) were turning to gravel, the wonderful City of Fayetteville decided to take action. Apparently this has been in "the works" for a while. The entire street was full of city vehicles, cement trucks, back hoes, men with shovels and other equipment. There was absolutely no place to park in front of our house which normally wouldn't be a problem except that both Steve the sheet rock guy and the home theater guys were both supposed to be working that day. I guess everyone was able to park close enough because stuff got done.

By the time we got home the evening I took these pics, the concrete had been poured and I noticed a group of people had gathered in front of the house. They quickly pointed out that some doofus had walked down the sidewalk in front of our house before the cement had set. Upon further inspection our house was the only one with footprints in the cement (thanks, man!). We appreciate Jay for quickly grabbing his push broom and erasing the culprit's tracks.

Outbuilding No More!

Woo-Hoo! The bathroom no longer looks like an outbuilding. Steve the sheetrock guy (formerly Steve the subfloor guy) has started hanging drywall. I didn't realize how much difference even bare drywall would make. Or how much difference R19 insulation on the exterior wall would make. That bathroom, even with the door closed stays about as warm as the rest of the house does with the space heaters on. This makes me want to gut the rest of the rooms and insulate...well, maybe not that much, I think I can hold out a couple months 'till Spring.

(I bet you guys are getting sick of seeing that same hanging light in all the bathroom pics.)

And Baby Makes Three...

Yes, you read that right, we are expecting! We found out back in November, but we waited until New Year's Day, after we heard the heartbeat, to tell everyone. The morning sickness is gone now, and a bit of belly is starting to show. It was so funny to see everyone's reactions when we told them the news. We've been married over 6 years, so everyone had pretty much quit asking when we were going to have kids. When we told our families about our new addition, the general reaction was "what?" and "a dog?" and "did you plan this?". The baby is due at the end of July, so as soon as we get the bathroom and kitchen finished, we will start on the nursery.

A Little Privacy, Please.

The sheet rockers were a no-show but the home theater guys showed up and started wiring. Cara also started hanging curtains in the living room. She chose a dark brown, lined velvet curtain that she picked up from Pottery Barn. They should stop the drafts from the windows and help warm the place up. I don't know how you guys who live north of like, Missouri make it during the winter. The curtains were hung so you can see the stained glass from outside. The wire hanging from the wall is where the in-wall rear speakers will be installed. I'll post an update on the home theater project when that's finished. We are still waiting on the living room furniture Cara ordered to be delivered...I am ready for that room to be finished!

Moving Right Along

The bathroom project is really starting to move along. Chris installed the insulation last night, we joked that it's now the warmest room in the house! Today, the drywallers are coming, so hopefully we will be installing tile this weekend. My big wish is that we can be showering in our own bathroom by next weekend. It's looking like it might actually happen!


There are about a jillion little projects going on in the meantime. The city has started working on the sidewalks on our street, which will be a big improvement (and something we don't have to work on or pay for!). The draperies for the living room came in yesterday, they just need to be hung. This will keep some of the cold out in the evenings from the large windows. We've started the painting in the kitchen, and bought the fabric for the window coverings and the lower cabinets. Eventually, we might strip the lower cabinet doors to remove excess paint, but for now we will use little curtains. Sometime soon we will install open shelving instead of upper cabinets, it's just a matter of fitting it in.

Mans Best Friend...or at least Cara's

A few weeks ago we adopted Mazey, a retired racing Greyhound. She, like most Greyhounds is very laid back.

Her routine consists of the following:

• 8:15am, Wake up and go potty
• 8:45am, Go to work, eat, then sleep behind the front desk (all day)
  
• 5:00pm, Go home, eat then sleep on the couch (all evening)
• 11:30pm, potty, then sleep (all night)

The first week was spent learning the stairs...now she's a pro! She goes to the shop with us everyday and has really taken to Cara since her dog bed is behind the front desk. Whenever Cara leaves to run an errand Mazie cries and whimpers for her. She loves to ride in the car and is always very excited to go to work in the morning, and equally excited to go home...to eat and sleep I'm sure.

To learn how you can adopt a retired Greyhound, click on the Greyhound Pets of America link to the right. ;)

Say NO to Crack

We are coming ever nearer to a nice hot shower. I have this gut feeling though that after the bathroom is done and I'm ready to take a nice long hot shower, there will be minimal water pressure. Is there any way to test the water pressure before the fixtures get installed?

So...The bathroom update.


The sub floor has been installed and after the brace job I did on the joists, the floor is very sturdy.


We stripped the walls down to the studs because the plaster was so damaged. We will now be able to insulate the exterior wall.


During the process, one of our cats decided to check out the newly exposed crawl space.


No, Cara's not plumbing. She's trying to fish the cat out. ;)

So that's where we are, the drywall is going to be installed Wednesday and I still have to insulate and tear the old drywall and plaster off the ceiling so I'd better get to work.

Everyday is Laundry Day

It has been a while since we have posted. My laptop died but luckily was under warranty so I didn't have to fix it myself, but it did have to be sent off to Gateway. We finally got cable ran in enough rooms to install the cable modem in the computer room and we just now got one of the desktops hooked up. Now we can update the blog from home. We have made a lot of progress, but for this post I will focus on my wife's new toys: Her Titanium LG Trom washer & dryer (a choir sings in the background).

It is very nice to have clean socks and undies...Woo-Hoo!

The washer & dryer combined with the water heater is starting to give us a taste of civilization again.

"You Don't Have to Live Like a Refugee!"

What a difference a little hot water makes! The house is a little less like a refugee camp. Chris and Jerry got the water heater installed over the weekend, so now we have hot running water. We chose a 50 gallon because it was the largest the space would allow. We chose electric so we wouldn't have to run a vent through the cieling and roof. We were in such a hurry to get hot water we didn't even paint or remove the nice wallpaper in the closet. You don't know how much of a difference until you are washing your face for bed in ice cold water, not so much fun. Now if we could just get that upstairs bathroom done...

We also have an uninvited visitor - a mouse. It's funny how something so cute can cause such a scare when it runs close to your foot! Not so cute in a house either. The mouse took my screaming as his cue to leave. He ran behind the kitchen cabinets where there is about a 3 inch gap between them and the wall. We got the cats and showed them where he ran and they were on a stakeout for part of the evening. Too bad they are so well-fed, because they gave up way too soon.