Moving Date!

So I think we're too the point we can commit to a moving date. We were thinking about Saturday the 19th, but there is a lot going on with the ward party and Canton's city festival. We thought about postponing it another week, but my doctor's visit today convinced me that the sooner the better. I am already dilated and the baby has dropped. (Not that that guarantees an early delivery, I could still go past my due date for all I know) Anyhow, I would much rather not have a baby while my possessions are in transit so Friday June 18th it is! A wonderful friend in the ward has a moving van he lets people borrow for moves so we should be able to get all of the big stuff in one trip. Next week we will start taking stuff over each night so there wont be as much to do on Friday. I have already had several friends volunteer to help clean and watch Kennedy. We are so blessed to have such an amazing ward family!
Now we just need to get the finishing touches done to our projects this weekend. Go team Clawson!

Back to the Grindstone

After 9 days partying with my sister and her husband Enoch, it is time to get back to work on the house. Not that we didn't get a lot done with our guests here. Marissa instructed me on how to paint and we finished both the kitchen and family room. We also primed the cabinets and painted all the trim. Enoch was the man when it came to woodworking. Together he and Tim put together a shelveing unit to hook to one of our kitchen cabinets. Enoch also helped us cut and hang the chair rail board and installed a light fixture.
However, who wants to work when you can party! And so we did. We went to the Henry Ford Museum and the Rouge Factory tour. Lunch at Buddy's pizza. (yum!) We walked around downtown Plymouth and tasted the fudge. We spent a whole Saturday at Greenfield Village during their civil war remembrance day. We visited the Detroit waterfront and took in a Tiger's game. We made it down to Toledo for a day at the Zoo and Kennedy wowed us with all her animal sounds and enthusiasm.
Perhaps my favorite part were the late nights playing Rage and Clue and chatting with my long lost sister. (It's so sad how far apart we are)
So now it's back to the grindstone finishing up our projects on the new house and packing up the old apartment. I think the whole pregnancy fatigue has really set in and I am struggling to keep up with my former pace. Thank goodness for naps!
As of today we have all the tiling finished, including the backsplash. The rooms are all painted and just need a touch up here and there. The cabinets are all painted and we are just waiting on the hardware we ordered to arrive so we can attach the doors. The additional cabinet that Tim and Enoch built is finished and installed. We had to make a new cabinet to go over the above-range-microwave, but that is installed as well as the microwave (now that was an ordeal) The chair rail board is all installed and just needs to be putted and painted and the floorboards are all cut and ready to be hammered in.
We' re in good shape folks. I just have to keep looking back at how far we've come and realize that the rest is all down hill. We can do it.... I think.
Our projected move in date is June 19th, but we just found out that there is a stake activity planned for that morning so we may move it or shoot for the afternoon. Boy I can't wait to be sitting in my new home looking back on all of this and laughing. Hopefully I will have just enough time to catch my breath before life gets really exciting with the arrival of baby Abigail.

Note: For some reason my pictures won't upload so I will have to add them later.

Home Project Update

I guess I am running out of steam with these house updates. My sister Marissa and her Husband Enoch are visiting us this week from California so I would rather hang with them than blog. However, I am pleased to announce that we finished tiling the kitchen backsplash and wiring for the new electrical outlets. The house is prepped for painting tomorrow and the tile stuff has all been cleared out. There still seems like a lot to do and my energy level is so very low, but Tim is still plugging away and Marissa and Enoch are here to help. Somehow it will all get done and we can move into our new house. Someday....

Home Project: Day 15

Wednesday was the R.S. temple trip, and so rather than sleeping until noon (which I desperately wanted to do) I tore myself out of bed and headed to the shower to get ready. Of course the shower nob broke off in my hand and I was forced to use a pair of pliers to control the hot and cold water. I never quite got the hang of it and ended up with a lukewarm to cold shower. Not what I was looking for after 8 hrs on hands and knees the night before.
The temple trip was fantastic. What a pick me up after a long few weeks. It is so great to be able to put things in perspective.
Once back at the house, Kennedy and I took a much needed nap and waited for Tim to get home. The original plan was to prime the ceiling and prep the rest of the walls to be painted. Both of our bodies vetoed this plan and we have decided to scale back our plans for the next few days. As much as I would like to have the main level all painted and ready by the time our visitors come next week, it just isn't possible. I hope the don't mind it if the house is still mid-construction. I do promise to fix the shower by then. ;)
The rest of that night was spent relaxing and tidying up a little. Tomorrow, Tim an the Murphy boys (yeah for young blood) are going to mow our jungle lawn and give me the night off. I can't wait!

Home Project: Day 14

Tuesday we grouted (is that a word) all the tile. I had picked up a book at the library that said that it would take 3 hrs per 100 sq ft to grout. I scoffed at this. After all, I had done this before and I know it wasn't that hard. Read on
My friend , and across the street neighbor, had volunteered to help me wash walls on Tuesday. She graciously allowed me to substitute warm water and rags for sandy grout and a sponge and the two of us grouted all the kitchen while our toddlers took their afternoon naps. We made quick time and it was great getting to know her better as we worked.
After such a pleasant experience earlier in the afternoon, I was confident that Tim and I could finish the rest of the tile by 10 pm, at the latest.
I swear someone stretched out our floor plan and added a few extra hundred square feet of tile. It never ended. I worked that grout into those crack from 7 pm until 10 basically non-stop and still it kept coming. Tim's job was to clean of the tiles and reduce the film covering after an area was sufficiently hardened. This left me to lay all the grout. My forearms hurt just thinking about the sweeping motion. When I close my eyes I can still see tile lines in my head.
Anyhow, around midnight, after a re energizing Slurpee and some corn nuts, I finished grouting the last tile. Barely able to move, I shuffled up the stairs and flopped down on the bed, barely stirring when Tim climbed in next to me 3 hours later after scrubbing all the tiles and cleaning off the tools.
Happy ending: The grout is done. The tile looks great. Abigail was not born the following day.

Home Project: Day 13

Monday we arrived at the house at a very low stress level fully expecting to lay the last few tiles and hit the sack at a decent hour. The tile gods had a different fate in store for us.
The area we had to finish included a closet and part of the hall that connected the tile we laid Saturday to the tile we would lay Monday night. After doing all the cuts and laying the closet we moved to close the gap in the hall. To our horror we were almost a inch over our line and would have to shift all the work we had just done as well as rip out a few tiles from Saturday's work to make the lines meet up. Right around this point Kennedy had seen enough of the doggies next door and reached her goldfish bribe limit. She want to "hold you" (be held) by mommy and nothing else would do. I was able to keep her at bay for a while as we frantically pulled up tiles and pushed and pulled the lines to meet up. Finally, I could stand Kennedy's moaning no more and we put her in her room to play blocks. Not 10 minutes later, she was back downstairs climbing on my back crying. She mastered the art of opening doors rather quickly in this new house. (rats!) Tim ran up and got her pack and play and we caged her in that for a while.
To add to the tile disaster, Tim needed to return the truck to the bishop as we had already borrowed it for much longer than expected. Still loaded with junk he was forced to dump it all back out again, this time along the side of our house. (hopefully this is less of and eye soar than our front porch). Of course it had to be pouring rain just to keep things interesting.
He finished unloading the truck and returned it to the bishop just in time to witness a complete melt down by yours truly. I was trying to sing to Kennedy to keep her from screaming at me from the pack-n-play while grappling with the hopelessly crooked tiles all on way to little sleep. Tim quickly summed up the situation and sent me upstairs to cool down while he put Kennedy to sleep.
After a break and a few prayers, I realized that the tile was not hopeless and that life would go on. So we plugged away until 1 am and finished laying all the tile.
Whew! I am getting tired just remembering that horrible night. The happy ending is that the next day upon returning to the scene of the crime, I couldn't even identify the "hopeless" areas. It all looks great and the best part of all is that it's done!

Home Project: Day 11 and 12

Despite the long hours put in on the house both Friday and Saturday, I really don't have too much to report. Friday the plumber and his buddy patched up our ceiling with a few sheets of drywall. Shannon Dunnigan came over to help me dry lay the tile and snap our guide lines. When Tim got home we started right in on tiling our entry way. Shannon saved the day by taking Kennedy for the night (I'm not sure why we thought we could tile with a two year old running around). Tim manned the saw and mixed the mud while I spread the mortar and placed the tiles. We made quite the team and finished the whole entry way and hall in one night.
Saturday I headed off to teach piano and drop Kennedy off for a day at the Howard's (thanks a million) while Tim and a friend from the ward loaded a borrowed truck bed up with all the old tile and trash that had been sitting on our front porch. Saturday was free dump day and we felt our neighbors probably did not appreciate seeing our trash everyday. When I got back we started right back into tiling and before we knew it, the morning was gone and we still hadn't taken our load of trash to the dump. Tim hurried off to do that while I prepped the next section of floor. 45 min later Tim returned home with the truck and the trash. The dump had already closed!!! So now we have a truck bed full of tile and no place to put it. Tim has decided it is not worth the $55 to take it to the landfill today so he plans to dump it all back out (this time on the side of our house under a tarp) and try again in two weeks when it will be free. No fun.
The good news is that we got all the tiling done but the pantry closet and doorway out to the garage. I may never stand up straight again after almost 12 hrs on hands and knees, but I think the hunched look is really working for me. We hope to finish up the tile tonight and grout tomorrow. Next up, paint and kitchen backsplash. I better go eat my Wheaties!