4 weeks old

Happy Halloween

Andy's birthday

Andy had a busy 31st birthday.  We painted the first coat in our master bedroom...it was really HOT with no AC and windows open for ventilation.  Then we got ready to head into town for an early dinner and a movie.  He got to have a sampler of Belgian style beers which he really enjoyed even though he didn't finish all 6 of the samples; he would have been spitting drunk if he had...  I thought it was great that he even got carded...what a way to celebrate 10 years of legal drinking...  Yummy dinner and a free dessert of a chocolate brownie with ice cream.  Then, we got to see the new Batman movie which he has been dying to see since it came out.  We just hadn't had time to go to the movies until the vacation, but I talked him into holding off a week so that it could be part of his birthday.

Babymoon

I apologize in advance for the arrangement of the pictures.  I thought that I had them done nicely, but blogger messes them up between the typing of the post and the publishing of them.  I would go put together something nicer for all of you, but I have way too many dishes left to wash now that the kitchen renovation is complete!

We've heard or read many recommendations to enjoy the last little bit of time before we have a baby.  We knew that we couldn't stay at home or we'd end up doing stuff.  Since Andy has been doing lots of work at the house and lots of extra days at work, we wanted to have a relaxing time together so we decided that rather than doing several small laid back weekends, we would do one big trip.  We decided on Carmel, CA based on what we had heard about it and my sister's recommendation (she lived there for a while).  We ended up going to a vacation rental rather than a hotel for 5 nights (Saturday - Thursday).

Andy & I decided/remembered that we hate the first day of a trip.  We inevitably bicker and snap as we try to gather and load everything without leaving the house in a state of disaster while sticking to our schedule.  This trip started no differently...bicker, snap, schedule blown to smithereens...  But we finally made it out of the house, had a late lunch in Cambria (near the Hearst Castle), drove the highway along the coastline, drove through Big Sur in the dark and fog, and finally made it to our rental to unpack and head to bed.

We had a fabulous plan for Sunday brunch that also went down the drain.  Andy discovered that although he packed the suitcases and loaded the car, his jeans and long sleeve shirts didn't make it to Carmel with us.  They were left hanging in the closet at home.  You might think that wouldn't be a problem in the summer, but it never got above 70 degrees while we were there.  So, Andy was really annoyed that he only had one pair of shorts and workout shorts and pants.  He needed a run to work out some of that frustration.  After he bundled up in multiple layers, I made sure that he had his phone and the GPS for the run.  If only those measures had been enough....  He ran along the highway until "pulled" over by the highway patrol because you aren't allowed to run there.  He was directed to the trails that he could run on.  These twisty trails kept going and going and....  After two or two and a half hours, I tried to call him, but his phone went straight to voice mail.  Since this has happened before, I decided that I wouldn't worry until the run had lasted three hours.  Apparently, Andy had tried to find a pay phone but was unsuccessful.  Thankfully, he did find another highway patrolman (who'd heard about him from his partner who "pulled" Andy over at the beginning of the run) who let him use his cell phone to call me.  He finally made his way home after a little over three hours.  This was his one and only run.

On Monday morning, Andy found a Ross store so that he could buy a pair of blue jeans.

Otherwise, we tried to do a little bit of walking around town and eating.  A few days we even got to enjoy some entertainment (Bach Festival concert, play).  We had a lovely few days!  Thankfully, the skies were bright and clear on our drive back home Thursday.

                          
our rental in the fog

the view out our windows when it was clear

(although it looked much better in person that the camera shows)

 beautiful beaches and scenery all around

 

 

      

 

tons of wildlife

a loner

the beautiful Cypress trees

the famous lone Cypress tree along 17 mile drive

         

 

us out on the town

 deer on the Pebble Beach Golf Course

Yard work

That title isn't fair when your "yard" is 3.5 acres.  Andy had to meet certain guidelines laid out by the fire department since we live in a high fire risk area.  I guess that nothing had been done on the property for a few years, because Andy worked hit butt off and still isn't finished.  Among the regulations are grass/weeds under 3 inches for 200 feet from the house, getting rid of dead trees and bushes, and trimming up trees so that he can walk under them.  The tree trimming meant that he had to get a new toy, a chainsaw.  He got to work on that so that we would be ready to take all of the trimmings to the free chipping day provided in the area.  Here is what we took to be chipped.

Unfortunately, this is what is left with no more free chipping days.  I think he's going to rent a chipper for a day to get rid or all of this and mulch around the trees.  At least in the future, the growth shouldn't be this out of control each year, and we have lots of firewood and fire starter for the winter.

There are also piles of firewood and fire starter in the barn that Andy cut up and kept rather than chip everything.  So, we should be set for fires in the fireplace this winter!

Andy's excited and Mary's pregnant

and we're both overwhelmed!!  My sentiments are no longer quite as dire as this title implies...although they were to start with.  But for those who haven't heard it through the grapevine, we are having a baby girl at the beginning of October.
To answer the most basic questions:
We will go down to Cedars-Sinai Hospital to deliver.
I am feeling fine for the most part.
We have put a registry on Amazon for any interested; you can find us by searching either of our names.
Baby's Name: not definite, but thinking Caroline Adele; we would call her Adele or Addie
We are scrambling to try to get lots of projects (updating the blog being one of them) done before there is a sleeping (hopefully) baby in the house.
Below are pictures tracking my growth.

beginning of 2nd trimester (I think)

end of 2nd trimester

start of 3rd trimester - only 2 weeks after the previous picture

House update

The flooring went in, and the kitchen and master shower went out.  We had a pipe crack in the master bathroom shower that just happens to be right above the kitchen.  So, we've been dealing for several months with an insurance claim to have these two places repaired.  Andy & I knew that we wanted to make changes to both the kitchen and master bathroom, but they were on the 5-10 year section of our renovation plan.  C'est la vie.  So, we spent a ton of time trying to make a plan for the materials, costs, upgrades, changes, etc. for the two locations that were being worked on.

The kitchen is most of the way finished now; eventually, we will make a few other minor changes.  We added a breakfast bar to the kitchen so that now we have a breakfast nook.  We still need to change out the fan, replace the French doors (kind of rotted in a few places outside), and add a pellet stove to the corner.

These show the kitchen with the breakfast nook, the door to the garage, and the French doors.

when we bought the house

now

Once everything is complete and dry in the kitchen, I can put all of the dishes and food away in the cabinets and then actually clean all of the dust.  I can't wait!!!  Right now every flat surface downstairs outside of the kitchen is covered in dishes.  When we ran out of room on tables, we laid some things on the floor to set food and appliances on.  Here's a portion of the mess.

The master bathroom needs a lot of work still, but we are really happy with the shower design that finally worked (3+ tries later) and that the claw foot tub polished up so nicely.  We are still waiting for the glass and frame for the shower, but otherwise it is ready to go.  The paint color is supposed to be gray, but it looks light blue...ugh...I hate choosing paint!!!...we'll change it later...

We have had multiple leaks and burst couplings with our sprinkler system and other pipes outside.  It is so frustrating when we find another one.  It's a good thing that Andy had lots of experience digging post holes out at the ranch as a teenager, because he has been putting that skill to good use.

We got our garage doors fixed so that they close all of the way so that snakes can't get in and surprise me while I do laundry.  The doors are even fully operational now!  We are in the process of organizing the garage so that we can actually pull the vehicles inside of the garage.

When it rains, it pours

I found this post sitting in my draft box.  Apparently, I forgot to publish it...back in March!!!

Hello from the world of concrete and saw dust. I'm finally able to start cleaning it all up knowing that there won't be more added inside the house. We do FINALLY have our new floors in (sans the stairs...a different project); there will be more about how beautiful they are in a later post.

We've had plenty of things going on in addition to the floors over the past week and a half. Randomly, our dishwasher decided that it was no longer going to empty completely. We attempted a little bit of investigating on our own, but couldn't find a problem or easy remedy. Based on what I found on the internet, I was concerned that the motor might be going bad. Oh well, thought I - I'll call the home warranty company. So, a young man comes out and talks with Andy about the problem. I was told the story later (The parenthesis are all the reactions I had in my mind.) He opens the cabinet doors under the sink and is able to immediately diagnose the problem. There was a kink in the hose. (Are you kidding me??? We spent $60 to have him tell us it was a kink from moving stuff around under the sink!!! Well, this situation was bound to happen again; I guess now we know what to check first.) Whoever connected the dishwasher to the sink disposal used the wrong type of hose and it is too long. The man would check with the warranty company to see if they would cover the cost of replacing the hose with the proper kind and length. (Yeah right, the dishwasher works - why would they cover the cost of fixing something that isn't actually broken?) Low and behold, the company says they will cover the cost. (Yippee!!! It worked out well for us that the hose got a kink so that we could have the proper kind of plumbing under the sink.) They fixed this on Sunday (a week ago that is).

The flooring installation happened Monday - Wednesday.

Tuesday afternoon, they stopped installing early so that after work Andy could crawl under the house to investigate a place that kept creaking no matter what they did to fix it. So, Wednesday morning, Andy zipped up his white (coverall) suit - like you would wear in a clean room - and crawled under the house. After me stomping on the creaky spot a whole bunch, Andy found the culprit. We have a beam that is cracked, almost the entire length of the beam. Thankfully, several men have told us how easy it will be to fix and exactly how Andy should do it AND it shouldn't be expensive.

Still Wednesday morning - Andy changes from his white suit into his work clothes, drives off, and comes back. There is a river of water running down the side of the driveway to the road. In my grungy clothes, I hopped around trying to find where the leak appears to start. We identify it and turn off the water to the property.  Andy heads off to work, the guys finish installing the flooring, and a plumber comes out to fix the burst coupling in the supply pipe to the house from the main water line.

We think that the floors are beautiful....of course, they are rather clean right now....

Demolition

So, this is our front porch now.

We decided that since we have so much work planned for the house we might as well pay the extra money to have a dumpster that is emptied each week. Thank goodness we made that choice! What you see on our front porch is what is left after the dumpster was filled with a whole bunch of carpet. So, once the dumpster is emptied, we can fill it again with the stuff on the front porch. Unfortunately, we still have plenty more to tear up in the house. Oh well, we'll get rid of it week by week.

As you can imagine, all of this demolition is creating quite a mess. The carpet had plenty of dust in it, but the big culprit is the tile and it's concrete backer board. Andy chiseled up the tiles and then pulverized and tore up the concrete backer board that was under the tile. He had hoped that the backer board could remain down with the laminate laid on top of it. Several flooring people at the big box stores said that was probably the best way to do it even. But of course, that wasn't what I wanted because then the entry and our breakfast nook (the two places with the tile being removed) would sit about an inch above the rest of the flooring. YUCK!

Here's another picture of the layer of dust that is coating much of our house currently.

We have one "clean room" downstairs. Even with the plastic on one side and curtains on the inside, some of the dust still made it through.

Andy learned that the recommendation to use a sledge hammer to demolish concrete backer board should be followed. If you use a wood splitter rather than a sledge hammer, you might have a little too much force. You might go through the concrete backer board (including the metal mesh in the middle of it) on down to the plywood subfloor. Since it is not advisable to have big holes in your subfloor, you would have to cut out and replace the subfloor in those areas.

OOPS!

OOPS again (sigh - actually you might hear sounds more like a grizzly bear)

2012 New Year letter

My goodness, another year has passed. I can’t really even remember what was happening at the beginning of 2011. We had just started to settle in to our house in Fort Worth. Andy’s boss had told him to settle in to his position because there wouldn’t be any shuffling around or transfers to other departments in 2011. We planted a vegetable garden in the back-yard; the squashes, cucumbers, and tomatoes were growing like gang-busters, and then… Major changes started in May when Andy was unexpectedly offered a new job at one of his company’s plants in California. So, in one month, we packed and closed up things in Texas. We drove away at the beginning of June with our Honda Civic packed to the brim with clothes, valuable, the two pets, and us. We were all so thankful to not get into the car after three days on the road.

We lived at a hotel for four LONG months. After a month’s delay in the purchase of our new house, we finally moved in with a borrowed air mattress and two newly purchased Adirondack chairs. Our household goods were delivered, and I got busy trying to dig us out of boxes. Things were quickly put away so that we can have everything off of the floor quickly and easily. We planned this so that the nasty carpet can be ripped out and new floors put down in January of 2012. Then we can put everything where we truly want it, making the house into a home. We have all kinds of renovations planned for the next few years, including a new façade, kitchen, bathrooms, patio, and an outdoor dining area. Now doesn’t that sound like a whole new house?

The new house is in a small town with one four way stop. The town considers itself a community of equine enthusiasts although we also have a local vineyard. Despite its rural location, Andy only has a 20-minute commute, and the stores we frequent are only about 10 minutes. Our property has over three acres, a small barn, and arena. The house is a two-story farmhouse with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and a 3-car garage. Andy is thrilled that we have a wood-burning fireplace that we are using regularly since the temperatures are below freezing at night.

After about a month in our new house, our cat, Cappuccino, went out one evening to go potty one last time and never came home. We assume that he became coyote or mountain lion food. We still miss him quite a bit.

We’ve had a few other notable occurrences this year. Our laptop’s hard drive crashed while we were living in the hotel. We thought this wasn’t an enormous issue since we have a back-up hard drive that Andy is quite religious about using. Unfortunately, we discovered that it backed-up our applications but not any of our documents, pictures, or music. So, basically, we lost everything that we were trying to save. The folks at our local Apple Store managed to replace the burned-out hard-drive and restore the operating system. Apparently this was happening to everyone with our type of laptop (something to do with hard-drive vendor quality control). Recovering the data from the old drive will most likely require a clean-room (you know, the kind with the full-body suits and gas masks, where no dust exists) and a lot of time & money. The fried hard drive is the main reason that we can’t really remember what was going on at the beginning of the year.

Andy’s sister, Cici, had her second baby at the end of August. He’s very mellow and smiles a lot. The birth of Hudson Fritts brings the count to half a dozen nieces and nephews for us.

We both read/listened to the entire Harry Potter series this year. We also saw the final film in the series this summer. I enjoyed being able to go through the books one right after the other instead of reading each when it was published.

Andy is really enjoying the challenges that his new job is providing. He now does quite a bit of creative thinking and problem solving while working on lots of “cool stuff”. He’s fitting in quite well, and they saw fit to give him a promotion, despite having only been in CA for a five months. Sometimes his brain is quite tired by the time that he gets home, only to have to begin his schoolwork at night. Three courses and a written thesis are the remaining obstacles for his Master’s degree.

We hope that you have all had a lovely holiday season and are looking forward to many adventures in 2012.