House update

I took four days off last week and tried to crack somethings out. Somethings were pretty good, some, not so much.

Task 1: Grind stucco. This job sucked. We had heavy 80's stucco, and we needed to grind it down to match the new window patches. This job was big, but it is done. Yea for me!

Task 2: Install windows. I put in 3 out of 4 windows. So, that wasn't too bad.


Task 3: Grind and polish counters. I am so frustrated with this. The pour was great. The forms were perfect. There were very few bug holes, and none on the sink counter. We actually thought about setting the counter without polishing because it came out so good. Now I wish I had. I can't grind these things to save my life. The irony is that I had assumed that would be the easiest part when I started. Arrrggg!

Birthdays

November is eventful. We have 4 birthdays this month in our house. Marley turned 4. Asher turns 9 in 2 days. Kate will be one. Stefanie will be... one year older. Add that to the other holidays and it is a packed month.

Asher had his party this last Friday. I don't know if I was brave or stupid, but I agreed to take seven of Asher's friends camping Friday night at Sugarloaf in Kenwood. Fortunately, I had some help from a number of the fathers. There were so many things that could have gone wrong, but amazingly it was a perfect trip. First off, the weather felt like June. We arrived Friday night and started off with a game of flashlight soccer. Sugarloaf campsites ring a large meadow that is pretty flat except for the gopher mounds. This meadow was perfect for a rustic soccer game of boys vs dads.We followed that with a simple dinner of hot dogs, chips, and apples. After dinner, we had some s'mores. There was an Australian family that visited our site in hopes of finding a corkscrew. Although we couldn't help them there, we were able to give them their first taste of s'mores. Yes, it is the total "Dad" cuisine. But it was simple, and everyone there liked it. Dessert was followed with a game of freeze tag in the moonlight. Then at 9 pm, we were off to bed.

Morning time brought more adventure as the boys started out trying to hunt down a turkey for breakfast. While they were on the prowl, we cooked breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and eggs. After breakfast, we played a rematch of the soccer game from the night before and went on a hiking trip. The hiking trip gave the opportunity for some rock climbing which was probably the biggest hit. At 11, we made our way home for pizza, wiffleball, and playstation.

The birthday was a big hit with the boys, and I survived the weekend, so everyone was a winner.

Singing in the Rain

The first rains are here. I think we were more worried that their Halloween evening might be dampened than they were. Isn't that first rain always so fun and exciting when you aren't really sick of it yet?

Introducing Ellyana

I have been saving this post for a bit, but we can't keep her from you any longer. We would like you to meet Ellyana. She first hooked up with us in Pinecrest. Whenever Marley was "taking a nap," Ellyana would show up. Much like Marley, she is a firecracker with a lot of life. Ellyana had to spend more time with us at Pinecrest than Marley did, however, she visits less frequently now that we are home. Still, Ella had fun playing dress up with her the day this photo was shot.

Standing Tall

I have been slothful about keeping up to date on our happenings. So here is a little Kate piece. She is crawling, standing, babbling, and smiling a lot. She is very easy going, but is becoming exceptionally curious. She has had 6 teeth for a while now, and we are surprised more have not made their appearance. Most unfortunately for us, she is not sleeping the entire night. She was, but then we went away and she stopped. When we got home, she had figured how to stand up. So now when she wakes in the middle of the night, she gets up and jumps around instead of going back to sleep. All the same, you can see from this picture that she is quite a cutie.

Tooth Fairy Epidemic

The tooth fairy has been a frequent visitor to our house. Ella has lost both of her front teeth in the last month. I think it is pretty cute how losing a tooth or two completely changes the look of a kid. She actually looks younger with the big gap up front.

Not to be outdone, Asher had 4 teeth pulled to make room for adult teeth. I have never seen such big teeth. The dentist hoped the roots would be dissolving, but they were full length. Asher wasn't excited about the whole experience.

Pouring Out a Good Time

When Stefanie and the kids moved into the house in September of last year (a month after I moved in), I confidently assured her that we would have Thanksgiving in our "new" kitchen. If not Thanksgiving, then certainly Christmas. Well, for a number of reasons, the primary one being my absurdly unbridled optimism, we are a little behind that schedule. We are hoping that I might make good on that for this Thanksgiving. Tonight, however, was a major step in the right direction.

We have been planning our concrete counters for a while. I got a quote the first month we moved in for $4500. So we decided to go the DIY (do it yourself) route. I actually was ready to begin in March, but we opted to focus on other things for a while. With summer all but gone, we decided to use my last 3 days to get going on the counters. In true optimistic fashion, I also made a mental list of ALL the other things I would do during those days, because, well, 3 days! I can knock these counters out in half that time. I got started with the first step of cleaning the garage. You can see here that my garage is actually clean, and the tables I built are level. Problem? This took all of day 1. You are looking at the finished product of an entire day of work. I actually finished unpacking that final four boxes still in our garage from our move 1 year ago (although we still have a lot of other boxes in our dining room).

2 days left. I got to work on the forms. This was my favorite part. Figuring out the size, making the forms, putting it all together. This is a picture of the form for our cooktop counter top. It is made with MDF, and the counter is poured upside-down. The bottom of the form will be the top of the counter. I cut 2 inch foam insulation into the shape of our cooktop. Just a tip, if you ever find yourself needing to cut foam insulation, don't use a handsaw! What a mess. The jigsaw is definately the ticket. After all the corners are caulked with silicone, I went to work on the rebar and wire mesh to give the concrete some support. Then I thought, "What will I do with the extra concrete from these two counters? I should have a good amount." So I started a third form for our bathroom sink. That accounts for day 2 AND day 3.

We went away on Saturday and Sunday, but Monday night, I decided to pour starting at about 8 pm. I figured the cooler weather would be better for pouring concrete. I knew this would be a two-man job, so I asked my friend Don to come help me . We mixed, poured, vibrated, and smoothed all three counter tops before 10:30pm. This interesting tool Don holds is called a pencil vibrator. It gets all the air-bubbles out of the concrete. The only problem was that it got smoking hot and was hard to hold.

In 5 days, I will see how these turned out. I will post an update then. Out next step is to stain the counters a weathered dark brown and polish them with the diamond polisher. Full steam ahead!