Fixture Update

This is the children's shower. Note the adjustable shower head. This is for obvious reasons, but we found it will be handy when Ben starts taking his first showers while he's still short.


This is the fixture above the sinks and mirror (that's not there yet) in our bathroom.

Here is the tile around the tub. There are small, decorative diamond-shaped tiles in the center.

Our shower does not yet have a door. Or back wall. To the left you can see the bench.

This is what is called a "bubble" light. It is the fluorescent light in the laundry room.

This fixture is in the powder room off the kitchen.

I love the look of the fan in the living room.

This is the "formal" fixture in our foyer. Brad picked it out.

Our mantle has finally been put in, but it still needs to be painted white.

This is the fixture in our bedroom.


Other exciting things have occurred this week. Switch plates and outlet covers were installed. Most appliances arrived and were installed. The doorknobs were put on today. Tubs and toilets and sinks and faucets are all in. The framing for the driveway was constructed and the concrete should be poured Monday. Heating and air finished their job and installed the vent covers. The hood over the stove is mounted, but not finished. All the recessed lights are in. The laminate was finally put down on the craft table. Let's hope next week is even more productive.

Des Colores

This is an appropriate title, given that I had an interesting experience today with one of the guys painting my house. I pulled up in the van and rolled down the window to ask him a question. Blank stares. I was trying to figure out if they were coming back to finish up the job tomorrow. The conversation started out with me chatting away in my rapid, yet drawling southern voice. After rattling on for a few sentences, I realized that he didn't have a clue what I was saying. I tried again. "Are...you...coming...back...tomorrow?" The light bulb flickered. "Will...you...finish...tomorrow?" "Tomorrow? Yes, yes. Tomorrow." "Good." I smiled. "The...house...looks...VERY...GOOD. You...work...FAST." Blink blink, pause, whir, click..."Thank you." I am not telling you this to ridicule any of our ESL citizens. I am telling you this because it comically explains why the guy inside wouldn't talk to me when I was trying to engage him in a conversation about the nuances of wall color. I even said a few things that should have elicited laughter, but was instead met by a few misplaced comments and serious looks. The poor guys had no idea what I was talking about. So, hopefully the colors will appear true on the screen, but my guess is they won't. At least you can get a general idea. Living area- green, bathrooms-tan, girls room-pink, boys room-yellow, master bedroom- some tannish green color, laundry room- rose brocade (aka purple). The library hasn't been painted yet since all the interior doors were stacked in there to keep them out of the way of the paint. When I left today, they were putting the doors up on the rooms that were finished, so maybe tomorrow we'll get the library done. And the front door. It is a red color, by the way. I think someone voted on that. I would also like to note that in the pictures, not all the rooms have their second coat.

The Blurry Kitchen

We need to put a disclaimer on this picture. It was taken at night with the flash in a very dark room. So it is blurry. I will try to get a new one during the day time later this week after the painter has finished.


The open area to the left is where the oven will be. On top of the oven is the mail slots that had not been installed at the time. They belong on top of the counter to the left of the oven. The raised area behind the island is where the dishwasher will go.
The tile has been installed in this area since this picture was taken.
This coming week the painter comes back and they work on the driveway.
The next week the electrician and plumbers come to finish their work.

There Is Poop In My Drain

I would like to start this post with an excerpt from an email I sent to a friend of mine last night:

Hope everyone at your house is well. All of my children are sniffling. We have 3 humidifiers going tonight. Anna coughed so hard she threw up on herself and I had to drag her out of bed to give her a bath and wash the sheets. Ben got up because he heard the ruckus and Emily started crying. Then I accidentally bonked Anna's head on the floor when I was laying her down to change her diaper. She started crying (more) and wanted her blanket. Guess where that was? In the WASHING MACHINE because it had throw up on it. I just hurriedly put her in the baby bathtub to change the scenery, but it was resting on a toy that was in the big tub, which caused it to shift and crash. Soooooo, this caused her to cry so hard she pooped in the bathwater. Good times. Brad was at Wal-Mart during all this. Buying extra humidifiers. Ha!

My children have been battling colds for the past week or two, on and off. They keep passing it around, and then it will go underground for a day before coming back with reinforcements. I've been to the Dr, and they are immensely UN-helpful, reminding us that they do not recommend giving children cough syrup now-a-days, and besides, all the over the counter stuff has been pulled off the shelves because of a recall. We have been using copious amounts of Vicks on Ben and Anna. For Emily, I use copious amounts of Vicks on myself and then just hold her elevated all night.

This is how we arrive at poop in the drain. Somehow, drainage causes my children to have diarrhea. This has caused a diaper rash on Anna (which we are treating) and social inconveniences for Ben. Today he didn't quite make it to the bathroom. During the changing process, I was a bit hurried. I use one of those plastic nap mats for a changing pad, so when I removed the poopy underwear, I left Ben on the mat and quickly stepped into the bathroom to toss the underwear in the sink. Not quickly enough, I suppose, because he was already making poopy bottom butterfly prints on the mat by the time I got back. Anyhow, when I returned to the sink to deal with the soiled underwear, I found that a good chunk of poop had slid out of the underwear and into the drain hole. The drain was completely open, since the plug had stopped functioning correctly years ago and we just took it out. So. I tryed to rinse away the poop. It was soft, I figured. Instead, I just suceeded in washing it it further down the drain, where it has decided to reside. I suppose eventually it will rinse away. I can see it easily from above. It is right on top of a toothbrush we lost a few months ago. Given the water restrictions right now, it will probably take a criminal amount of water to get rid of that stuff. Maybe I should invest in some Draino.

Insulation Update

Just want to keep you informed on the role of insulation. It reappeared this week, but the strange thing is that it brought a friend. We used to only have one extra role, however now there are two. One day one came back, then the next day the other. Maybe the thief reads our blog and was convicted of his/her wrong doing and decided to replace it two fold. Who knows.

This week on the house

Gutters were installed today

Other things for this week will be
Paint (Start on Wed)
Tile
Cabinets
Trim work

Next week
Concrete slab in front
remaining cabinets

Would you believe that someone stole a role of insulation that I had put upstairs in the storage area of the house? We had bought some to put between the walls of the kids rooms (to help block out some of the noise at night) and had a role extra. So I put it up in the attic until I could take it back because we were leaving the next day for the beach. Well when we came back from the beach it was gone. Oh well.

Brad