The Remodel, Day 3

Tired of this, yet? Well, tomorrow you get a reprieve. Since I don't scrapbook and don't keep a journal, the blog gets it all - the great stuff and the tedious stuff. Today was not *quite* tedious, but it was not one of our more stellar days.

The boys explored the freshly mown meadows and pastures. They found a "hidden path" and are dying to show it to me, so we'll have to check that out Friday when we head back out for a full day. Or perhaps the boys and I will head out solo during the week and just spend some time enjoying the place without me yelling, "Look out below!" as the bulk of our conversation.

A neighbor dog showed up during lunch. I leaned over the balcony and gave it my best nasal, from-the-diaphragm, "Gidonouttaheah!" It wagged its tail and came up the steps. Ok, so it's friendly. Stupid, but friendly. The dog shadowed the boys the rest of the day and they had a great, great time. The dog has a rabies vaccine tag, but no ID tag of any kind. It left in a bit of a huff when I blocked the balcony come supper time, but I'm sure it'll be back - boys, food, sticks, and belly rubs, what dog wouldn't enjoy the occasional visit to that place, right?

The boys are faring well. They're chatty and helpful. They get off-kilter and need to snuggle. They needed a lot of redirection this morning, and I think they're ready for a break. It's okay. Zorak and I remember being these ages (well, except for Smidge - we're clueless about being two, other than that it seems to be a very exciting era in one's life), and so we try to remember to take breaks, have snacks, hold hands, tell jokes, and look at neat bugs. It does cut back on the productivity of the demolition aspect of the house, but it aids tremendously on the creation-of-a-home aspect of the project.

James burned his thumb on a piece of wood today. He told me about it and showed it to me. On the inside, I dove right into a huge lecture about knowing better and following directions and blah, blah, blah. Then I smacked myself upside the head and realized a) he probably won't do that again, b) he told me of his own volition - and how often do we have the opportunity to reinforce the trust we want to build in such an obvious, no-brainer way, and c) that really looked like it hurt. So we treated it and looked at it (you know, 'cuz that's a really cool science lesson!) We snuggled and I empathized. What could have been a camel-kicking session turned into an exploratory hike. That was very cool. I hope to catch more of those, more consistently.

Thinking back on my Living Intentionally post, I want to point out that this isn't a "look at what a great job I'm doing" segue, but this is one of the direct side effects of Living Intentionally. I can vouch for the effort, as just in the past week or so, we've felt a difference in our little corner of the world. Don't get discouraged, just keep going at it. Life will never be calm or cozy or predictable 100% of the time, but it can be good. Very, very good, indeed.

Zorak and I... um... are finding our groove. How's that? That sound okay? We are each motivated by very different things, and approach things in different ways. It's good. The house needs both methods of attack. The boys need both styles of parenting. The life we have would be horribly dull without these complementary perspectives. The meshing process may kill one or both of us, but still, even with the grinding gears and occasional stalled engines (figuratively speaking! Thankfully, the Suburban is healthy and sound), today was a productive day.

Zorak Smidge-proofed the balcony (the rails on it are spaced just wide enough apart for a large-headed two year-old to fly clean through with nothing to slow his acceleration. This nifty new feature is worth its weight in gold. We both breathe easier now, and the boys can eat on the balcony, where only the bees have found them so far but the ants have yet to venture.

He built a two-shelf workbench using some of the many interior doors we ripped out. It's nice to have a work surface now, and that thing will probably get much use before it's broken down for the fire. He also inspected the chimney on the scary-wall and cleaned out the gutters (ew), where he uprooted a couple of trees (yes, trees growing IN the gutters) and dumped out many cubic feet of what looks like the richest mulch I've ever seen! Wow. We'll probably need to replace the gutters, but can wait until Spring, at least. He also managed to get the debris pile down to a manageable level, which was not only encouraging for he and I, but tons of fun for the kids!

I worked on the living room and did manage to get all the paneling off in there. A quarter of it was pretty tough because the popcorn ceiling (a pox on the evil sob who invented that crap) is sagging under the weight of the now-collapsed blown newspaper insulation in the attic (more pox! Come to think of it, pestilence all around!). So while the paneling would come off the wall, it then stayed tightly wedged between the sagging ceiling and the six-inch deep, damp shag carpet (ok, not quite six inches, but the living room is 26x18 and by the time I hit the last wall I swear it felt like the carpet was that deep or deeper!)

Once the living room was comfortably bare, I tried to finish the bathroom, but the tile wall stalled me in there - I got one wall of that stuff off and almost doubled the cubic space in that bathroom! *grin* I'm too wobbly to be able to get a good stance to do the back wall of the tub, though, so Zorak had to step in at the end of the day and handle the tiles. It's almost done now, just need to haul out the broken tiles from the tub before it falls through the floor into the basement. We have a dumpster coming on Friday and I suppose it'll wait until then.

Then on to the kitchen remnants, where I did get the rest of the kitchen paneling out. Ew. Zorak wants the built-in bookshelves for the basement (they currently face the living room on that kitchen wall that's marked for destruction to open the two spaces). I simply don't get things out in one piece, so that's waiting on him, and I did not get to view my new kitchen/living room layout in all its nekkid glory today. That was a bit of a bummer for me, as I was really looking forward to that. But that's okay, it'll all come together this week.

And on that note, my dryer just buzzed (I have three days worth of maternity clothes and haven't done wash in four days - ew - so yes, I'm up when I ought to be in bed). I'm going to switch out a load and go tuck the boys in, then hit the hay myself. Have a lovely Tuesday!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy