Where Have I Been?

You may be wondering. Too busy to blog would be the obvious answer. The literal answer, Hawaii, Georgia, Tennessee, renovating my house, and hosting grandparents are the more exclusive responses. Here are photos of the beginning of demolition, and a portion of reconstruction. Soon, I will have completed project photos.

The project: kill the ugly pink tile, replace with beautiful vertical cut carbonized bamboo. We did some demo and hired out the construction part. The plastic sheeting a la Dexter, is to prevent major dust from infiltrating the entire house. It did not work. I returned from a 10 day Hawaiian vacation to a beautiful floor, but had to vacuum my couch before sitting on it. Oh, and clean a 1/4 inch layer of dust off of EVERYTHING. Good times.

Snowballing Home Projects

Every homeowner knows that the list of home improvement projects is never ending. Here at Chez Pavey, the moving in has gone VERY slowly, and the problems/malfunctions seem to be multiplying. A quick summary: Prior to move in, water heater flooded daylight basement/family room. Extreme La Nina storms pummel master suite and sunroom, causing under door flooding in both rooms. Cost to clean carpets: nearly $400. First refrigerator water feature malfunctions, Home Depot provides free replacement with upgraded fridge. Cost savings: $1000 for fancier fridge than I need. (Scored Black Friday Deal!) Drain failure under kitchen sink after draining dish water. Immediately fixed by handy husband. Cost: free. Rodent invasion through unsealed surfaces. Lousy cat does not do her job. Cost: 2 cans of spray foam and dirty husband to crawlspace, plus 2 mouse traps set for any stragglers-no captures or further evidence of rodentia.

Now for my current Everest. The smallest room in our house is a full bath in the daylight basement. It is the "guest" bath, but also the main potty stop for those using the family room/playspace. Therefore it is seeing a lot of traffic from one little boy who loves to get potty prizes. The toilet paper holder thingy broke (replacement cost:$1.98), however, this has started the first major renovation in our new home. We discovered that the toilet was running too much so we bought a new flapper for the flusher. This did not help, the flapper could not freely swing to close. So Jeff got more of the mechanism yesterday. As he was installing it, he discovered that one of the bolts that holds the tank to the toilet was leaking. Now the back is totally off of the toilet, enabling me to paint the wainscoting a lovely shade of white (called Lamb).

Since the toilet paper holder broke, we decided to should replace all hardware in that bathroom. The builders of this house had TERRIBLE taste and installed GOLD HARDWARE everywhere! Hello 1980 (but the house was built in 2003, hence the taste issue). All walls/ceilings in this house are either boring beige or tan. So what better place to bring in some character that the guest bath, right? So, I've been painting.

When done, this bathroom will have a fully functioning toilet, beautiful paint (dark green above white wainscoting) and SILVER fixtures! If you visit Chez Pavey, please take a moment to notice this handiwork. I feel like we are rebuilding that bathroom!

Our first guests (Jeff's parents) are scheduled to arrive Feb 13. So I need to get back to paint prep while my family is still sleeping!

Water Heater Hell

We have been living on borrowed time with our water heater since moving into this house 4 years ago!! Replacing it was a top item for the pre-Nugget arrival list. Well, we've been without hot water now for 2 days, while Jeff fights the beast. We thought there would be victory last night, but when he got up this morning to shower, water was leaking from the thermostat of our defective water heater!! He had a big ski trip planned for the day, since it just FINALLY snowed in the mountains this week. So, Ryan and I went to a friend's house for me to shower for church this AM, and he took his skanky bootie to the mountains! Now it's 10 PM, and he just discovered why we are having such trouble. 1) there is air in the pipes, 2) the water valve feeding the water heater was not all the way open!!!! NO WONDER IT TOOK THE THING 3 HOURS TO FILL UP!!!

I hate home projects, I would TOTALLY hire someone for everything, but my husband loves to learn by doing.

If we don't get hot water in the next hour, I'm moving to a hotel. I do not enjoy camping in my own home, and the dirty dishes are really piling up. I had to boil pans of water to give my baby a Little House on the Prairie bath tonight, and it was not fun.

The plus side:

1-Jeff redid the floor under the water heater, since the old one was sitting on soggy particle board (classy).

2-We also replaced the old with a "lowboy" version that will get us 1/2 a closet in the office. (our office houses a water heater in one closet and the furnace in another- good use of space? I think not)

3- Ryan got a swanky clubhouse box to hang out in and color. He should be busy for the next week decorating it. (minus- getting green marker out of his EARS during his pioneer bath)

In other news, today marks the 20 week point for my pregnancy. I'm half way there!!