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By kilax, October 30, 2018 8:49 pm

Our month of all the house guests is over! Sadness!

My snister Christina, her husband Will, and their son William, visited from Kansas City Thursday night through Monday afternoon <— how awesome they could stay for so long!

We didn’t have any big plans! We just wanted to spend time together. And eat. And get our nails done (Christina + me). And do a project or two (Steven + Will). And go to the petting zoo.

And that’s what we did! (Minus the petting zoo because the weather was crap the day we wanted to go, wah.)

There was lots of playing! Jen had brought over some toys that William loved. Thank you, Jen!

William likes the Porg! Until it makes noise, ha.

Having William visit pointed out how NOT toddler-friendly my house is! Lots of steps (the first floor has two levels) and lots of things at arm’s reach. We made it work, though! And no one was upset about it (except me feeling bad for making watching a toddler more difficult!).

There was playing with kitties! Khali mostly hid, Starbuck would hang but didn’t get too close to William, and Apollo was super chill with William.

Khali and Will are basically besties now.

A new hiding position – took us a while to find her there!

Being brave on the stairs

We ate!

Of course we went to El Famous. Um, twice. Which I’ll explain later. We made chili, dumpling soup, and got pizza (twice)! Oh yeah, and we got Taco Bell. Ha. FOOD, FOOD, FOOD!

We went trick-or-treating at the businesses in downtown Grayslake, the town where I teach and where Steven’s business is. It was fun to see all the costumes! And fun to run in to a few friends.

William as Alfalfa

We got our nails done! Christina got “CIA = Color Is Awesome” and I got “Toying with Trouble.” I’m jealous of her blue nails.

Steven and Will installed a camera in one of our attics to watch for critters. They also sealed a gap (with metal and wood) where the heating duct goes between our two big attics, to keep critters from going between the two spaces.

While Steven and Will were working in the attic on Saturday afternoon, Christina and I were inside hanging with William and we heard our driveway sensor go off. I wasn’t expecting a delivery so I looked at the camera to see who it was and saw a familiar red van and !!!BIG SURPRISE!!! my dad was walking out of it!

Mom and Dad knew Christina and family were visiting this weekend and decided to come out and surprise us! They’d been planning it all week and none of us had ANY idea! Mom was even saying thing on group texts like “Oh! I forgot this was your special weekend together.” Tricksters!

Me, Mom, and Christina

It was such a great surprise! We were having fun, and had even more with Mom and Dad there!

So we obviously had to go back to El Famous so Mom and Dad could enjoy it. They were even joking about stopping there on the way to our house. Ha!

We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out, watching some shows/movies, playing 5 Second Rule (yeah, I am a bit obsessed), and doing a bit of shopping (I scored a great deal on a new comforter aww yeah). Oh, yes, and eating, eating, eating! Mom brought delicious apple crisp!

Mom and Dad brought this fake cat. It was funny to see how the cats reacted!

Christina and I were still talking today about what a great surprise that was from Mom and Dad. It’s not often we all get to hang out, without something else going on to distract us. And it’s fun for me to get to host everyone… in our small cozy house, ha! (Our dream is to someday have a garage/workshop with a guest suite above it!)

And of course, we love having family and friends meet our babies!

Mom and Dad were able to stay until Monday afternoon too (yay!), and left when we took Christina, Will, and William back to the airport. Then, sadly, it was back to reality. Four days off with family was such a nice break (even though I accidentally checked work email once on the weekend and was dealing with some stupid issue at the end of the day yesterday, sigh).

Oh! And in case you were wondering from the pictures, yes, Christina is pregnant! She is having a boy in January! Yay, another nephew! That will probably be the next time I see her – when I get to meet him!

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By kilax, October 23, 2018 11:26 am

On Friday night we were telling Anne and Terry we installed a camera in our attic to track any critters in there. And that since we put it in, there hadn’t been any activity.

Yeah, you know where this is headed.

Steven informed us Saturday morning that we had a visitor.

Aww, but he’s having so much fun!

As adorable as flying squirrels are, we don’t want them living in our attic. The reason we spent all of August 2016 tearing out our second floor ceiling (and some of the walls) and redoing it, along with the HVAC and electrical, was because flying squirrels had taken residence in our attic while our home sat vacant for 2-3 years. AND THEY PRETTY MUCH DESTROYED IT.

We don’t want a repeat of that. We’re going to find someone to humanely relocate them.

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By kilax, July 20, 2018 7:03 am

The sump pump project is completed! Yay! (Click here to read what a sump pump is and where you need them.)

Background: we have two separate sump pumps in our basement. One is for ground water and one is for water in our house (laundry, AC, etc.). The first one pumps the water outside near the pond, and the second one pumps the water in to our septic tank.

We had new sump pumps installed two years ago when we moved in. We have an alarm system in our sump pits that goes off if the water rises higher than it should, to let us know the pumps are failing. And we have a generator to keep the pumps going when the power is out, so it’s a secure system! (Last year, our power was out for almost twelve hours during a storm where we got five inches of rain! The generator kept the sump pump going, and our basement dry.)

We decided to make the set-up SECURER, by installing another sump pump (same model) in the pit, as back up. So, if the first one fails, the second one works.

We also decided to put covers over the sump pits, because: it looks nicer, it mutes some of the noise, and keeps some of the radon in the ground out of the air in our basement.

We began the project by demolishing the build-out around the sump pump that pumps ground water outside. We needed to demolish it to be able to get to it to work on it.

Then we started working on installing the back-up pump and cover on the other sump pit, which was more complicated because things in the basement drain in to it (air conditioner, water filter, floor drain, washer, sink, and dehumidifier).

We cleaned all the water out of the pit, and cleaned the floor around it, to prepare the lid to be glued on.

A lot of the project was staging the two pumps (one new, one old) in the pits, and staging the PVC pipe coming out of them. Because we added an extra pump, there’s now an extra pipe. The pipes have to join because they exit the house in the same spot. And they also have to have a check valve that keeps water from running back down the pipes in to the pit.

So, we’d stage it all up, drill the holes for the pipes to go through in the cover, stage it again, then glue the cover down and screw it in to the ground. Then we’d put grommets on the holes in the cover, get the pipes through (involving sanding them down, olive oil, and elbow grease), then do more staging to build the pipes up the wall.

Getting the first pit “set up” took about six hours three Sundays ago. Then Steven spent time during the weeknights finishing up the other connections in the lid, and screwing the cap on to the lid.

Here is what it looks like without the cap on it yet

We worked on the second pit two Sundays ago. It didn’t take quite as long because it has less connections going in to it. But it did fill up as we were working on it, because you can’t turn off the water going in to that pit like you can with the other one!

Ground water sump pit completed, with lid on the cover, and extension coming out for future connection. This is the area from the before picture above. 

Then Steven finished installing the cap on the lid two Mondays ago, then installed traps on the AC and water filter pipes last Saturday. The traps keep any smells or gases from coming up out of the drain lines in to our house systems.

Water filter line trap

I’m glad we had a break in the rain while we were working on the ground water sump pumps! The hardest part of this was probably getting the pipes through the grommets once they were in the covers. We both had to push on them to get them through! And then there was the mischievous pipe cutter that sometimes liked to cut or gouge things at an angle… I think that’s getting returned!

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By kilax, June 15, 2018 4:29 am

Hooray! This weekend, Steven and Dad completed some projects that Steven’s wanted to get done for a long time. We had been waiting for the right weather (we kind of had it…) and time to do it!

Renting a boom lift was crucial to the work – installing gutter guards, new plumbing vent caps, and tree removal/trimming. You don’t do those things (safely) on a ladder!

The boom lift arrived on Friday and we had it until Monday (technically, for eight hours of timed use). Steven wasn’t home when it was dropped off, so the delivery guy told me how to use it. I remembered MOST of what he said and Steven read parts of the manual to figure out the rest!

(Funny story: when Steven was calling to rent it, they asked what company he worked for, and he said it was for personal use. So they asked if he had a license to operate and he said no. The guy on the phone was like “hold on a minute,” then talked to someone in the background and came back and said “Okay, what’s your credit card number?!” Ha.)

GUTTER GUARDS

We originally didn’t have gutter guards on ANY of our gutters (ha, our house didn’t even HAVE gutters when we bought it). After the first few big storms at our house, we realized we needed them – the gutters fill up so fast with the leaves getting blown around during the storm. And we want the water to go through the gutters and down the drain pipes – NOT to spill over and against the house.

So we had a company install gutter guards on one side of the house, and Steven installed them on the rest of the lower level that he could reach with a ladder. And that left the gutter guards on the second floor to be installed!

Getting set up

The gutter guards were a pain to put on because our gutters are installed too high (the guys who installed our gutters were idiots). You can see in the photos below that the tiles of our roof hang right over the gutters – the gutters should be a bit lower. Because of that, it was frustrating to get a drill back there to secure the gutter guards. But Steven got it done and they look marvelous!

Beautiful new gutter guards!

Not sponsored: The gutter guards are made here in Chicagoland and the owner is really nice!

It was overcast in the morning when they were working on the gutter guards, then the sun came out in the afternoon and Steven got a bit of sunburn while up on the lift. Oops!

PLUMBING VENT CAPS

We’ve noticed some back drafting of scents in to the bathroom that the vents are supposed to be pushing out, so we figured they might be clogged, and that we needed new plumbing vent caps. The gutter guards were the top priority project with the boom lift, and this was the second one.

This ended up being a huge pain in the arse because the vent caps Steven ordered had to be modified (cut and shaped) quite a bit to fit on the exhaust and against the roof tile. That’s one thing to do when you can walk to your tools and use them and test the shape. It’s another thing when the tools are in the garage and you’re two stories up in the air and having to test the shape!

But they finally got them to fit, yay!

Also, these are “critter quitter” vent caps, which are meant to deter animals from getting inside them and chewing on them. The old vent caps were lead, and apparently, lead takes salty and amazing to animals. The new ones are plastic. Stay away, animals! Stop chewing on our house!

TREE REMOVAL/TRIMMING

Steven and Dad got the gutter guards and plumbing vent caps installed Saturday which meant they had time Sunday for bonus projects on the boom lift (Steven checked the timer and saw they were still under the eight hours allotted).

After the morning rain stopped, they removed a tree from the backyard. It was the only tree in our backyard, and it was rotted and hollow inside.

Then they went all over the yard removing dead limbs. Sigh. We have A LOT of unhealthy trees in our yard. We don’t feel bad cutting them down since we have so many damn trees, but we are concerned about that so many trees are unhealthy! We might have a tree doctor come look at a few.

Inspector Data

It looks like a storm came through our yard, but that’s just all the limbs we still need to clean up.

Steven and Dad spent all of Sunday afternoon removing limbs. They got almost all of them done except one (the boom lift died and that ended their fun). So if you visit, I’ll tell you where NOT to park your car, in case it falls. Hee hee.

BONUS PROJECTS!

Don’t worry, Steven had back-up projects for after the boom lift got picked up and when Mom and I were at NeoCon on Monday.

HITCH INSTALL

They installed a hitch on my new car, yay! Now it’s ready to hold my bike rack! You know, if I actually rode my bike… (I totally will after this race!).

GUTTER DRAIN PIPE

The gutter drain pipe they installed in September has been spewing water out when the sump pump runs, so they installed some (custom-made) tighter fittings to stop that from happening.

In conclusion…

Damn, they got A LOT done! Steven was really hoping to get the gutter guards on and maybe the plumbing vent caps, so he was happy to get so many dead tree limbs down too. There was only a few small “fill in free time” projects they didn’t do, and really, those are things Steven and I can do (really, Steven, ha).

And don’t worry, friends! Steven and I still have A LOT to do on the house. Like:

• install attic baffles/insulate our strange little attic above the dining room
• install new sump pump covers
• install a plastic bag holder, battery holder, and paper towel holder in the closet upstairs (I like easy projects like this, ha!)
• seal the basement floor
• design and build a drainage system for the front yard
• build a second garage

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By kilax, June 12, 2018 9:16 pm

My parents visited this weekend through this morning! The purpose of the trip was for Mom to go with me to NeoCon, but we also celebrated Mom’s birthday, and Steven and Dad got a lot of projects done (I’ll cover all those in another post!).

Oh yes. And I did all the carb loading. I am ready for Saturday’s race. And a few more marathons. Oops.

*unfortunately, you should carb load three to two days in advance… not a week to five days, ha! And yeah, I know it’s “carbo” loading. I don’t like adding the “o”!

FRIDAY!

I taught Fitness Boxing on Friday night for the first time. I usually teach it Saturday or Sunday but I don’t have any free weekends this month, so Friday night it is! I’m glad we had a decent turn out for the different class date.

Mom and Dad got in to town shortly after my class ended and they drove with Steven to meet me at El Famous Burrito. I ordered everyone’s food since I got there first and had some funny stares with the table all set up, waiting a few minutes for them to arrive. No, this is NOT all for me!!!

SATURDAY!

Saturday was Mom’s birthday!

I started the day off with a short run with Dad while he rode his bike. Then I took Mom to see Book Club.

Not the best movie I’ve seen, by a long shot, but we had fun!

While we were at the movie, the boys started the projects. Here is a preview pic!

We rented that boom lift – we don’t have one!

We brought home subs for lunch, and ate with the boys, then had trifles for Mom’s birthday.

These were supposed to be a cake, but it got hella effed up, so we salvaged it in to trifles. And it was amazingly delicious.

The boys got back to work after lunch and Mom and I screwed around for an hour laughing about a race where you run with a “hobby horse,” then eventually we signed me up because it’s so ridiculous (more details on that later!).

We ran errands and shopped that afternoon (while the boys kept working), then came home and made lasagna (and cornbread and broccoli!) for Mom’s birthday dinner! Seriously. ALL THE CARBS.

Vegan lasagna base, one side with vegan cheese, one side with regular cheese

And yes, we ate more cake after that!

SUNDAY! 

On Sunday Dad and I went on an even shorter run/bike (sigh, taper) than the day before. We wanted to both ride, but it was raining on and off all morning and not safe for me to ride my road bike in that, nor for either of us to be out in the fog and potential thunderstorms! Wah.

So we had a chill morning of chatting, which was nice! Mom and I made a return and got some groceries, then made sandwiches for lunch and hung out a bit before visiting the lake.

Mom and I hung out at the house after the lake visit, and when the boys were done working, we went out for dinner at The Shanty. We called it a night shortly thereafter since we were off early to NeoCon on Monday!

MONDAY!

Mom and I spent most of Monday in the city at NeoCon. I unfortunately started the day feeling beat and was completely exhausted by the end of it and not very much fun after we finished at NeoCon. Sigh. I’m not good at being social and around people for all of my waking hours, even when it’s people whose company I love and enjoy. I’m drained.

We made tacos for dinner, and had fun sharing stories from our days. Then Mom and I made vegan chocolate and caramel cups, which my snister surprised me with the materials and caramel to make! Yum!

TUESDAY!

Dad rode with me one last time Tuesday morning. I’ll miss his company – for the conversation and for making me feel like I can run faster (my legs felt so heavy today despite a “rest” day yesterday).

Steven picked up donuts and vegan muffins so we ate those then Mom and Dad hit the road late in the morning.

As always we had a fun visit and really appreciate their help with things when they’re here! Now, why do I feel exhausted even though I wasn’t the one working on projects all weekend? (Seriously though, I’ve been so tired the past few days I feel like I could fall asleep, or snap, at any moment – not good!)

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By kilax, April 5, 2018 5:53 am

• AHHHHH the Grease OPI line!!!! I’m definitely choosing my next nail color from there!

Christina had sent this pic of me listening to the Grease album a few days before I saw the new colors! Ha! 

• I saw those colors when I was at the salon getting at touch-up on my 5K nails. I hope it’s not an omen that one peeled so early!!! Eek! (At this rate, it seems I’ll have gloves on for the race anyway – my mom said it’s supposed to be really cold there.)
• I finished reading The French Girl, and started reading Immortal Life. Immortal Life is a sci-fi novel set in the future, about a 127 year old man who is transferring his consciousness to a younger host, because his original body is so decayed, and he wants to live forever. It’s interesting, but the writing style is difficult for me to read – long descriptions with lots of “fancy” (read: “I’m going to show off my vocabulary”) words. Eh. I will keep at it, and keep using my dictionary.com app.

• I confirmed at my local Starbucks Tuesday that they are phasing out the “You Are Here” mugs. But the “Been There” mugs sign says they will have a mug for all fifty states (and some destinations) so that’s cool – Iowa never had one before, and now it will! Woot!

• And now for some super random ish:
  • I like it when an e-commerce site uses Amazon Pay and I don’t have to re-enter all my info to order – I just log in to my Amazon account and the site grabs it from there. It’s especially convenient when I am ordering from my phone. This will probably bite me in the a$$, as I bet Amazon Pay gives those sites more info than they need. But man, it’s so convenient.
  • I’ve recently started adding raisins to my salads (ha, after Steven’s been suggesting it for a year) and WHOA does it make a world of difference! Yum! (A few people suggested cranberries, when I told them I like raisins. I tried them and didn’t care for them as much. Shrug.)
  • I bought this eucalyptus mint soap to try and the scent of it takes me and Steven back to when we first moved in to our home, two years ago. Neither of us remembers why we had this scent at the house before though (it’s not one of the usual scents we use), and it’s making me crazy that I can’t recall (since one of my jobs at home is sentiment/scent manager). But at the same time, each time I use it, I’m like “aww, we’ve lived here two years!”

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 173

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By kilax, February 20, 2018 12:21 pm

When we first toured our home, we noticed the floors weren’t level, and knew we’d have to fix them at some point (as much fun as it is to watch the cats’ ball toys roll to the lowest points of the house, ha). We started working on one of the unlevel areas in June 2016 when we put jacks in the basement where two joists were being crushed due to faulty loading. We replaced one joist in August 2016 (it was a priority to get done then, due to work going on two floors above), and – drumroll, please! – replaced the other one this weekend!!! Other parts of the house remain unlevel, but it’s exciting to make progress!

As I mentioned, when Steven and I started clearing the way for this joist replacement project, we found some wackadoodle construction under our first floor stair landing, so he and my dad took care of that during this project, too. But the first priority was the joist.

They picked up the new joist – a $19 2×10 – on Thursday night. Kind of funny to think all of this work is being done to put in a piece of lumber that costs less than $20!

And they got to work Friday afternoon. Despite our previous weekend’s work of clearing all the odd wood framing out from around the ductwork, they still had more to clear out to be able to get the joist in. You can see in the photo below that there was a lot of wood and conduit around the joist, and the stairs behind it were also in the way.

So a lot of Friday was more demolition! They ended up cutting out the drywall above the brick wall to expose the joist.

View from the other side:

They also took down a lot of ductwork and started demolishing the goofy stair platform. You can see in the photo that there was a double platform – which had no point to it. There used to be a post there too, which supported the platform. But they rebuilt it in a way that the post is no longer required!

Old photo:

They did put a jack there in the meantime though.

They kept working on Friday until they were able to get the joist in, which required cutting out part of the stair (and not taking the whole thing out THANK HEAVENS), turning off the power and moving some of the conduit. But they got it in. Yay! (This joist is under the wall next to the dining room, which is why they told me and Mom to move when we were playing Blokus in there!)

On Saturday, they focused on rebuilding the stair platform, and redesigning the ductwork that went underneath it. The wood supporting the platform hangs off of the new joist they put in, so a post is no longer required. Before, it relied on it <— dumb design.

Some of the old bottom platform was structurally supportive at the foundation wall, so they put blocking in between the old pieces, to support it more.

As you can tell, I don’t have very good before pictures (dammit, that is my job!) but the ductwork used to be below the second platform. Since they were taking that out, and rebuilding it, the ductwork could curve up, and we could have more head space there! Woo hoo!

They spent a lot of time redesigning the ductwork, and cleaning out what they were reusing (they used some new pieces, too). Then they put it all back together, and the project was DONE!

And now, we have this pile in our basement, and everything is covered in dust! But that’s how it goes with these projects. Although, what the hell was going on in the previous “design” that they had this much extra wood hanging around?! Seriously?!?!

Ha, I made them take this photo on Sunday.

Thanks for all your hard work, Steven and Dad! Dad, we’ll let you know what the next project will be for your spring visit!

If you made it this far, and can follow all of this, thanks for reading! I will be better about taking before and after shots from the same angle for future projects (because you KNOW we are going to have them)!

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By kilax, February 19, 2018 12:59 pm

While I was sad my parents had to leave late yesterday morning (I wanted to hang out more!) it was a blessing in disguise because Steven and I were worn the f*ck out from our weekend of doing all the things, and needed a day to be sloths. It felt good to do almost nothing after two and a half busy days!

And I am still feeling lazy so I am going to bullet this shiz up, ha!

On Thursday

• Mom and Dad arrived at 6:30 pm and we ate homemade vegan alfredo sauce on pasta! And dessert was a vegan apple pie sent from my mom’s mom!

• After dinner, Steven and Dad went to Menards to get the beam and other wood for the basement project, while Mom and I watched the Olympics, then screwed around in the basement gym for a bit.

On Friday

• I taught class at 5:00 am, and Dad and I went for a run (me)/bike (him) when I got back.

• Then Mom, Dad, and I went to the 10:15 showing of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. I laughed so much, and we all liked it. I usually do NOT like Jack Black (except in The Holiday) but his character cracked me the hell up in Jumanji!!!

• We went to Aldi after that (where we picked up a Kringle for Mom and Dad to try!), the came home and made lunch (salads and couscous). Steven came home from work and ate with us, then he and Dad got to work in the basement.
• And Mom and I got to work shopping at the outlet mall! I live so close to the outlet mall – it’s less than a ten minute drive, and I even run through there and fill up my water bottle on long runs. We found a few deals, and made sure to send my snister photos of the clothes we were trying on.

Sample photo we sent Christina, ha

I only got two soaps and a new PocketBac at B&BW. Restraint FTW!!!

• We went to Woodman’s (a grocery store) after to get ingredients so Mom could make a cake she wanted to try vegan for me (and to get some things I needed).
• Then we went home and made chili and cornbread for dinner (and had pie and Kringle for dessert!). Steven and Dad kept working until we ate, then went back in to the basement to work more, after. I’ll do a separate post about the project, but it was structural, so there were parts of the night we were told not to be in certain parts of the house (on the stair landing or in the kitchen). Mom and I were playing Blokus in the kitchen when we were told we needed to move (they were putting a beam in underneath us, so I understand why!), so we went to the living room, but they had turned the power off, so we played Blokus by candle light. Ha.

On Saturday

• Dad came to my Indoor Cycling class (then went back home to work in the basement with Steven after)!

• And Mom came to my Fitness Boxing class!

• After class, Mom and I went to the Holcomb Hollow grand opening, then ran errands at the mall. I hate going to the mall (and shopping, in general) so it was nice to have Mom with me! I got my rings cleaned, and did an exchange.
• Then we picked up everyone’s favorite El Famous Burrito for a late lunch! (Seriously, most people who visit us want to go there!)

• The boys ate a late lunch with us, sampled some of the Holcomb Hollow treats (and had more Kringle) then got back to work. Mom and I went for a swim (we swam for about ten minutes then used the hot tub for forty!). When we came back, I helped her book a hotel for her March trip with her mom to Mount Rushmore.
• I made a stir fry type dish for dinner, and the boys ate with us, then, you guessed it – got back to work. I helped them clean out one (huge) duct and later, hold some ducts in place. That is basically all I did on that project. <— so helpful (they didn’t care, but I feel a smidge guilty to be entertaining my mom and not helping much)
• After dinner, mom got to work on the cake she wanted to make. It was called a Hummingbird Cake (recipe here), and the main flavorings were banana and pineapple. She decided to make it in to cupcakes. It turned out AMAZING! We all liked it, and had some close to 11:00 pm. Oops. SO MUCH SUGAR ON THIS VISIT AHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

• The boys finished up the project around 10:30/11:00!

On Sunday

• Dad and I went on a run in the morning, then I finished up this dishcloth real quick for Mom to take with her.

Ha, it’s obviously NOT blocked

• Then they packed up and were off! We took a quick usie since, of course, we got no photos of all four of us throughout the weekend.

We’re extremely grateful my parents visited to help us with this basement project. My dad is so helpful with house projects (or any project). Steven and I were impressed that they got it done in one and a half days of work, and I know that wouldn’t be the case if I was the one helping him with it (because I have way less experience)!

And I appreciate my mom running errands with me and helping me out with other things around the house! And being up for doing anything I suggest, ha.

I really do hope though, on the next visit, all FOUR of us can do something fun, like go to a movie, or bowling, or out for a meal!!! I bet we can make it happen!

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By kilax, February 16, 2018 7:03 am

We had glass replaced in five windows this week, and I’m STOKED about it! The seals between the double pane glass were broken in a few windows, so they were fogged over between the glass and appeared dirty all the time. It embarrassed me – especially because two of the windows were ones you see as you pull up to the house. I SWEAR I CLEAN MY WINDOWS.

But they look dirty no more!

It’s difficult to capture the fogginess (of course) but I think you can see it clearly (ha) here, in the dining room:

FIXED!

And these are the ones you could see driving in, in the guest bedroom:

FIXED!

Data cracks me up – when we first moved in and had people doing loud work in the house, he’d hide under the bed. Now? He sleeps through it on the couch while the work happens behind him! He’s a construction pro!

Of course, I wrote this, then the next day, Data and Khali were both scared out of their minds by the snow sliding off the roof. Funny that this guy doing loud work with a Dremel didn’t bother Data, but the snow does. 

More work needs to be done on the windows, and some other glass, but it feels good to have this done. Bit by bit!

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By kilax, February 12, 2018 6:29 am

Whoa, this weekend felt busy. Luckily I had Friday off, and had a chill day before the days of doing all the things!

On Friday night, Steven and I went to our neighbor’s restaurant for dinner and instagrammed drinks.

We watched some of the Winter Olympics opening ceremonies when we got home. I’m glad I had a drink before that – it helped me through what we did watch (the commentators talking over everything, just, ugh).

I slept horribly Friday night and was up at 4:30 am! Whut dafuq. Ugh. I cycled inside at home until it was gym opening time and I could go do my long run there.

When I got back we began a demolition project in our basement. My parents are coming to visit next weekend (!!!) and my dad is going to help install a new joist in the basement (part ii of this project). We were clearing as much out of the way as possible, before the visit. (The joist has to go above the ductwork below, hence taking all that wood off of it.)

Eventually we’ll remove all the wood paneling off the walls

Of course, in the process, we found a hot mess of construction under the landing for our first floor stair. Gah, there’s always something with this house. Every time we do a project, we have more questions about how our house came about – we think the house started as something much smaller that was added on to more than once. That’s one logical explanation to some of the things we’ve found, like frame outs for windows in interior walls.

We took a short work break to check out “Snow Daze” in Kenosha. The downtown area had over forty-five ice sculptures to check out! Most of the sculptures related to what the business (or sponsor, in the sponsor area) was. What a clever way to get people to walk all over downtown when it’s so cold!

It was in the teens, but we still stopped for ice cream!

Then we went home and got back to work. Which was really just more brainstorming and discussing how to install the new joist and rebuild the platform under the stair. Next weekend is going to be busy. I was hoping we’d actually have hang out time with both my parents, but it doesn’t sound like it.

On Saturday night I put together Valentine’s Day treats for my fitness boxing class then FINALLY chilled out. Woo hoo!

I woke up Sunday to more snow. It didn’t seem like much looking out the window, but when I got outside for a run and saw how deep the tire ruts were, I called my run short and went back to snow blow so I could get out of the driveway to go teach fitness boxing!

I taught, ran errands, came home, unloaded, finished shoveling, then finished my run.

Phew.

After lunch, we went to the Chicago Auto Show. It’s been several years since we’ve gone and we thought it would be fun to see all the models in person. And I was excited to check out the F-PACE!

We walked around the show for about two and a half hours, then headed to Waterhouse to try the Impossible Burger.

Seen on the way to dinner!

We both liked it (and the buffalo cauliflower “wings” we got)! This burger is only available in certain restaurants, and I hope more add it. It’s great that regular (non vegetarian/vegan, I mean) restaurants are adding vegan options to the menu (like TGI Fridays adding the Beyond Meat burger) and I hope this trend continues!

We got home close to 9:00 pm! On a Sunday! I did the Sunday night chores and was beat. I woke up well before my alarm on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and felt exhausted. I might have to take a Monday afternoon nap after work!