Change log for Friday, April 24th, 2009

• Prepped three doorways for door hanging by pounding in the nails, trimming back the drywall, and marking the hinge heights on the doors.  
• Vacuumed up the mess I made by trimming up the drywall, the kids’ bath, and some of the upstairs hall.
• Made a tarpaper pattern for the shower area of the kids’ bath in order to make cutting the linoleum easier.  Started on the sink area, but didn’t get very far.  Played a rousing game of drop the granola bar with Nathan to keep him happy while he sat corralled in the bathtub and I worked.  Tar paper is stinky, icky to touch, and a pain to work with.  I am wondering if I can come up with an alternative for making floor patterns, as I have 6 more rooms to go.

Change log for Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

I drilled holes in 15 balusters to prep them for installation in the first railing section.

I thought about several other projects upstairs, but Nathan woke up early so I moved to the garden.  He is far too mobile to be trusted upstairs without a railing.  Emma and I weeded and I built a support structure for sugar snap peas, then Gregory and I planted pea seeds.  

I didn’t go to the house on Tuesday and Wednesday so there were no changes to report for those days.  Well, I did order the flooring for the bathrooms, pantry, mudroom and utility room on Tuesday so I suppose that counts for something!  That should be in sometime in the next two weeks or so.

Change log for April 20, 2009

We got our kitchen sink today!  It is HUGE – we should be able to bathe multiple children in it easily.  Perhaps even all three of them at the same time.  Thankfully it fits into our sink cabinet (not that we have a counter yet) and it looks great.  I am so looking forward to using this sink every day!

Not much else to report – Emma started back at school today after her two week Easter break and we also started a three day, 2 1/2 hr per day art class about 30 minutes away.  Between all of that, there was only about an hour left to go down to the house, which I spent oohing and aahing over the sink, burying compost, and digging up the poison oak near the house that sprung up overnight. 

Change Log for April 19, 2009

(And no, I didn’t forget Saturday’s entry – we *gasp* didn’t work on the house at all and instead went to Picnic Day at UC Davis.  It felt somewhat irresponsible, but we definitely had a good time)

Amber

• Moved scrap wood with the kids away from the house to the burn area.  I’ve probably moved enough at this point to allow for the propane trenching, but since it all needs to be moved eventually and the kids were fussy and wanted to be near me it seemed like a good project.

Matt

• Drilled holes in two newel posts and got them set
• Anchored the base of the railing to the floor, got the screws set
• Drilled holes in the balusters for the pegs
• Moved the drill press from his Dad’s workshop and got that set up

Change log for Friday, April 17th, 2009

• Today was a burn day from 9 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. so I burned construction debris for that entire period.  I started with untreated wood scraps and then switched to manufactured wood after our fire roasted lunch.  
• With my father-in-law’s help, we moved rocks that were in the way of the grading we need to do, and we also moved some stumps that Matt cut low when I expanded the garden a couple weeks ago.

Change log for April 16, 2009

Errand day and a fussy baby made it difficult to do much today…

• Picked out a laminate countertop for the kids’ bath
• Picked out a manufactured granite countertop for the master bath
• Measured the cabinets for the countertops and found that the master bath counter may not work because of how the cabinet is laid out
• Bought the connector hose to hook up the water to the fridge
• Hooked up the fridge to the water and found that it didn’t work.  We’ve also noticed that our water spigot outside the kitchen doesn’t work.  However, since it used to work when the hot and cold water systems were linked together we think that the plumber who did our rough plumbing (no, not Matt) switched the hot and the cold lines.  Whoops.  By looking at the pictures I took before the drywall went up Matt thinks he has found the spot where the lines were probably switched.  Matt is supposed to call the plumber to talk to him about it.

Some days feel like one step forward, two steps back…  

Change log for Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Amber

• Installed plugs in Emma’s room
• Installed blank plate in linen/telecom closet to cover the light future
• Vacuumed downstairs
• Moved more scrap wood outside
• Planned newel post layout with Matt

Matt

• Sanded the floor where the first railing section will be installed
• Cut the base piece for a railing section and tacked it down
• Planned out the location of the balusters

Change log entry for Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

• Boxed scrap Hardiboard and piled the big pieces
• Moved more wood to burn area, bagged trash, heaved pieces of concrete into the gully (gotta love having acreage)
• Loaded the trailer (with my father-in-law and Matt) with trash, recycling, Hardiboard, and other material that shouldn’t be burned. 
• Installed plugs in the upstairs hallway and linen/telecom closet (don’t you have a linen/telecom closet?)  Felt like a very bad mother because Gregory pinched his finger with some unidentified tool (nippers of some sort?) and Nathan fussed (I wouldn’t let him scoot around on a second story area with no railing) all because Mommy was busy installing electrical outlets.

Change log entry for Monday, April 13th, 2009

• Called Al (our tractor guy) to see about getting him out to dig a trench for propane and do some grading work on the front of the house
• Ordered the kitchen sink (and no, we’re not paying anything near that amount for it), as it is no longer being made and we want to get it before it disappears entirely
• Found and installed the missing blank plates in the away room
• Bagged trash, got trash and cardboard ready for a dump/recycling run
• Started sorting wood in the scrap pile outside the house, moved a big pile of manufactured wood down to the burn area, started a burn pile and burned some of the scrap material.  Greatly upset the children by not providing marshmallows and hot dogs.