Madeline woke up, stretched, yawned...and then I saw her eyes dilate. The realization that it was Christmas morning washed over her! She ran through the hallway and looked over the banister. MOMMY! There is tree wrapping paper! there wasn't tree paper last night! SANTA HAS BEEN HERE! We all went downstairs and marveled at the tree and presents. Harris got me both champagne and coffee for the morning's adventure. A majority of Madeline's presents are still necessities. This year, it included a rain coat and rain boots that will last her 2-3 years, new pajamas, tights, rubber bands for her hair, and a pair of tennis shoes. She also received a couple of new lego sets, a build a fort kit, playdoh, thrift store dresses, and an American girl doll she has named Julie. Margot received a couple of toys, a classic stacker, shape sorter, and push elephant. One day this year she will be old enough to play with them.
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Madeline literally lost a tooth yesterday. Her story "I was holding my backpack with my mouth - not the whole backpack just the top - then got to my class and swallowed my spit and it tasted funny and then Mrs. L asked if I had lost a tooth." Where was this all "In the carrider entrance before I got to my classroom. It wasn't even loose!" The tooth fairy was very kind and found the tooth at her school and left her a paper dollar under her pillow.
Overheard in line at the Farmer's Market this weekend. Person 1: So you're buying a house? Person 2: Yeah, we figured it's cheaper than renting. Plus we can do whatever we want to it! Oh cute, naive, little snugglebunny. I just want to eat you up! Lemme guess. In year 1 you might paint a room over the builder colors and change a bathroom towel bar. You will also plant bushes in the yard and make a small gardening patch.
While we were in Greensboro we stopped in the middle of the road and stared at a house. It had the exact shade of deep dark color we were looking for. We wrote down the street address and took pictures and forwarded them over to Sara, our tastefully purchased eyes and she found some really cool colors that scream US without it being right in your ear. We're going to paint swatches this weekend and see if we like them on the house!
I went back to work on the 17th so have blissfully quiet surroundings. We started with three carpenters fixing the rot. Basically, they started on the porch and have worked their way around our house fixing any rotten wood they find. Along the way, they've found -literally - 400 lbs of squirrel nests. Squirrels ate through the crown molding and made nests in the eaves. At one point, these were fixed with metal soffits. We've replaced those with wood and are encouraging the squirrels to stay very far away from our roof and attic. We then added to the fun a set of roofers who are working on the total restoration of our slate roof. It was not leaking, it had been patched and tweaked over the years, but it had maybe 10 yrs left on it - and those 10 yrs would be full of $1,800 repairs when slates blew off (yes), the metal flashings finally gave way (yes), and the rot from water running in at weird angles. We decided to go ahead and do it now while we still have access to the s...
Stage three starts...NOW! porch roof off & tarped porch carpentry being done now remaining wood windows upstairs being done now new sashes being made where old were rotten paint colors swatched to side of house to see if they stick...
Harris and I have been talking hypotheticals about getting married for a few months. We'd hoped that Windsor would be the case, but instead, it became the precedent for the case, so ok, it's the case, but not the time. Whatever. Anyway, after they ruled for Edith Windsor, we started talking about inevitability and soon ness and what we would do when the tide changed. When would we through a party? How big ? What entertainment? Where? What kind of food did we want? These sorts of things. What remained consistent for us was that as soon as it was legal we'd get married and then plan and throw the party later. Then the 4th Circuit ruled in the VA case over the summer but issued a stay while it was appealed to the Supreme Court. When the Supreme Court declined to take any of the cases on Monday we started talking more seriously. I made sure I had $60 in cash and watched twitter for news. The news comes faster on twitter when you follow people who are on the ground...
I'm writing multiple stories right now with a nursling who sometimes lets me write. They are slowly coming, but, emphasis on the word slowly. Margot is a delicious baby. She smiles, she's nursing, she's happy, and she has the most adorable cupid bow mouth and wide eyes. She does indeed look like a cute human lemur. Madeline went to the orthopedist on Tuesday and after crying through six x-rays was cleared for regular 5 year old activities. Her arm is healed, new bone nicely grown over the fracture, and climbing restored for my happy little monkey. She uses her arm more and more each day and is glad to not have that cast anymore. House - we've cleaned :) And entertained. And cleaned some more. Our windows should go back in the stairwell sometime in the next week or two. We're getting ready for the next stage of work right now, money showing up sometime in the next week or so for some massive changes. We have to get as much as possible done by the end of the y...
Margot was born on the 11th of September! The birth was a little more exciting than that of Madeline - I woke up around 2:45am and thought, huh, I think I'm in labor - and she was born at 5:11am. I hemorrhaged after she was born and have had some other complications this week so we're still having a nesting phase of me sitting around in bed or on the couch with her. Madeline had surgery on her broken arm on Monday. When they opened up her arm they found it was not the horrible pin needing break they thought it was so drained a bunch of fluid and blood and stitched her up into a new cast. Because it's back to an occult fracture, her cast should come off in three weeks instead of the earlier anticipated 6+ weeks. We're finishing up the final details of moving in. Marty and Ellie (Harris's mother and Aunt) were here over the weekend to cook and clean (omg they made the woodwork they touched sparkle) Once everyone is ...
Still pregnant. Madeline will have surgery on Monday to reattach the bone fragment to the joint and fix the ligament that was torn in her arm. Hopefully the baby decides to go ahead and be born now so I can care for all of my girls.
Had the three grandparents/parents visit for labor day. Moms set up the girls' room while Dads set up the random things around the house that needed to be moved, sawed, sanded, etc. Lots of cleaning, cooking, and playing uno was had. Things were looking up in the house! Baby was due on September 4th. No baby yet. Lucky too as on September 4th Madeline broke her arm while at the kindergarten open house. We spent the evening and we smas at the Duke ER where we learned she has a radial head fracture (elbow) and will be in a long plaster cast for a few weeks as it heals. We've spent the past four days convincing her that casts are ok, she didn't do anything wrong or bad (where this idea has come from we've yet to figure out), and that she should indeed eat ice cream. See, Friday night we went out to eat at our favorite local place as we'd basically been on the couch all day and needed food. Madeline got home and threw it all up and the...
Our stuff was in TROSA storage from September 17th 2013 until yesterday. They unloaded the piano, the love seat, boxes of books, plates, glasses, linens, and all sorts of other lovely things that make us feel like we have a HOME. So yes, we need to hang the picture rail so we can hang art on the walls again. Harris and Madeline are unpacking boxes and setting up rooms. Then will begin the great list of 'things we would like for the house' (e.g. better curtains, a chair here, a work table there, etc.) and we've already started the great 'why did we pay to store these items, I thought we were getting rid of them' decluttering. The elliptical and lazy boy went away yesterday and there is a box full of linens that we're going to take to the thrift for different reasons (panels too short, not enough panels, mismatched sheets). We have more unpacking to do, then some repacking to do (2yr old clothes can go in the attic once they are neatly packed and sealed),...
Why yes, Harris did play a lot of Super Mario Brothers as a child. Why do you ask? He's still fighting with the goram faucet and we're waiting for the tile guys to finish the last row of bottom tiles so he can re-install the toilet. Then we have to figure out how to carefully clean the paint of the existing wall tiles (about half are painted) and the suite bathroom is done!
HVAC upstairs will be finished today we've been told. We really like the company we're using and understand that it's an incredibly busy time of year and delays happen...but we have to have it done today. It was supposed to be finished by August 8th. Floor sanding - they should finish sanding everything today- we hope. Poly will start Tuesday at some point. Toilets - this is incredibly frustrating. We need new toilets put in, not moved, not changed in any way, just installed. And for some reason this has flummoxed the two plumbers we've consulted about it. Harris will try again today. Same thing with the bathtubs. Not moving a damn thing, just installing a new tub into the same supply and drain where a shower was previously. This is not hard people... Furniture - We'll move things around this weekend. Well, I will say where they go and Harris will move things around this weekend. I'll put up curtains I think? Then next Tuesday our furniture is delivere...
oh my damn. There's not really another expression that fits the amount of work on our plates right now. We finally ripped the carpet off the stairs, and with it came about 30 years of gross dust. Harris pulled the paneling/linoleum out of the hallway while I pulled nails on Saturday. I stopped at 437. Harris then started pulling, probably got just as many as I did if not more. Sunday was spent both pulling nails and getting things off craigslist. We found a set of bunk beds for the girls room as well as a bookcase. These things are important because there is no closet in their room in which to hide things. On Monday the tile guys will hopefully show up and hopefully lay the tile in the suite bathroom. From there we need to install toilets, sinks, and tubs in the bathrooms. Harris is talking to a plumber about things we can get them to do. I think the pocket door comes back from the woodshop on Tuesday. Floor work starts on Wednesday.
Living Room Light, before we bought the house, hanging in the living room with the dropped ceiling, termite eaten floor, and paneled walls. You'll notice it is both electric and gas. Harris rebuilt the light fixture, cleaned the hell out of it, and hung it in the entryway to the house. In the process he flipped the direction of the bulbs so it is now an uplight fixture.
We have central air conditioning on the first floor. I slept last night without the whir of a window unit in my ear and with a lovely, non-humid, temprature. When I walked into the kitchen this morning, still lovely. We joined a pool yesterday. Yeah, a little late in the summer for it, but whatever. When we got home, Madeline walked by the kitchen vent and said, wow, that's so cold. It is definately NOT refreshing. Oh honey, how could you be so wrong. They will finish the upstairs install next week as the floor sanders are there. Floors should be finished by the 20th and we can get furniture by the 22nd. House is coming along so well!!!
These are the backsides of the panels that we popped out of the woodwork this morning for the HVAC return. These panels will be saved in case we have any breakage around the house over the next 20-30 years. Notice the F and H. Harris couldn't figure out my cursive F the other day and I feel vindicated now. The HVAC return will go here. Box will be in bottom of what will be the linen closet and behind the door to the suite bathroom downstairs. Kiddo standing in her purple room before the trim is painted today. We started talking about curtains for her room over the weekend...it's becoming more real for her.