Time for being outside!

I signed in to write this and realized we haven't written a post in Old Films Reviewed, even though we have watched a couple. 'Doh. Maybe some other time.

So this morning I awoke to a knock at the door. You see, Alice and I got some sort of sneezy sniffly coughy bug over the weekend, and while its not terrible, we have been sleeping extra. So I threw on the first thing i saw and ran downstairs for the door.

It was our neighbor Steve. Steve's landscaping friend works with the Hy-Vee gardening people and they had some sod that was drying out and needed picked up today and installed today or tomorrow. I asked how much it was, and he said free, so lets do it, right? We don't say no to free. Even it involves some hard work.

So I told Daniel "no staying late at work, we were getting 30 rolls of sod." (I wasn't really sure how much that was, but considering we lost half of our grass seed in the heavy rains a couple of weeks ago, I figured we would get a good chunk of the yard covered.)

Daniel had a bad day at work, and we went out to get copious amounts of fried greasy fish, I mean Long John Silvers. It was slow moving, it literally took us 20 minutes from ordering the food to getting it, and when we got back none of the neighbors were around.

Then we got the message to call Steve, and we got a 5 minute warning to unload sod from the truck. So Alice finished off the greasy potatoes and we went and unloaded tons of sod. It was probably about 40 rolls, and it seemed like more than we would need when we were unloading it. Then we went and started levelling some of the lumpier parts of the yard, then inside and Alice took a bit of a nap (she hadn't got an afternoon nap, my bad).

Anyway, long story short, we rolled sod out until just before 9:30 which was pretty dang dark. I think I did a good job patching and staggering the sod, and if we keep watering like crazy, and finish the small area that still sod, we should have an awesome yard.

I gotta say, it was hard work, and I was glad it was only in the 70s. I am fine with manual labor, but my all natural deodorant is not.

So yeah, we stink, and are postponing going to bed and showering because we are a bit hyped up. Well, I am postponing because I don't want to bathe Alice. She made sure to get showered with dirt a few times and whats another 20 minutes.

So yeah. Come sunlight, I shall have to take pictures and post them. That means I have to charge some batteries. (By the way, the 11 year old next door thinks I am a hippie because I use rechargable batteries.) So I am off to be a dirty stinky hippie. Until I bathe, that is.

How to replace a Kitchen Faucet!

We had to replace the faucet on our kitchen sink. It had been somewhat drippy since we bought the place, but when you moved the turn off handle toward the cold side and push down hard...OFF. Tada.

Hence, a new faucet was purchased and not put on.

Last Wednesday morning I turned the water on to fill the pitcher, while holding the baby mind you. The handle came off in my hand.

Yes, I am that mighty.

I had to put the cranky (cutting tooth #2) baby down to finally finangle the thing back on. Only it wasn't really on. The thing was leaking. Not even a drop every once in a while leaking. It was a small trickle.

Crap.

Some pushing hard and it got to be just a drip. Not a really slow drip, but a drip.

Meanwhile the baby was screaming.

I had to go maintenance the baby. After a diaper change and feeding, she fell asleep. Then I heard it.

Drip.

Drip.

Talk about a torturous noise. It is like the beating heart from Poe, only instead of guilt I felt pure annoyance.

I tried turning the thing off again. No luck. Oh well, mop bucket to the rescue.

Daniel was informed that tonight was the night to replace the faucet so he couldn't work late.

He came home and I being the amazing homemaker that I am had dinner just coming off the stove. It had nothing to do with the fact that I was planning on shutting the water off the moment dinner was ready and the pitcher was filled. It was not a motive for forced manual labor.

So we started draining the pipes in the house. You see the really nifty thing about all the sinks in the house is that they don't have stop valves. So the water went off, and all the faucets got opened.

We ate dinner letting them finish dripping empty.

Daniel disappeared with the laptop.

In annoyance I yelled at him to come down and start already. Mind you he had been home around 2 hours and it was getting close to 8pm. He had forgotten that Home Depot (unlike walmart) closes at night. Talk about a random lapse of memory.

So we ran off with the little one. To the store. At 9pm. Yes her bedtime is 8pm, but I wanted running water dang it.

Well, lets just say the first 20 minutes went really fast. It seemed like we were doing great.

Then an hour later we were still at the same point.

Then the hacksaw and the reciprocating saw joined the team.

After carefully removing the old faucet we were ready to cut the water lines under the sink.

Around midnight we went to bed.

Got up at 6. Went to home depot before dropping Daniel off at work. The idea was that I would finish cutting off the other copper piping and then hook on the compression fit valves.

Lets just say I spent lots of time under the sink with a whining baby trying to climb under there with me. She mostly wailed and chewed on my legs. I put on on and it seemed strange. I tried the second and was having issues, so I started cutting the pipe lower. yeah, little pipe cutters give you blisters.

Fast Forward a bit and I took the baby upstairs for a nap. I joined her. We slept for a few hours. (Read Daniel called and woke me at 5:32pm...only 30 minutes after he got off work, oopsies).

So yeah he got the second compression fitting on and turned the water on with the intent of showering.

It shot off and we had old faithful under the sink. I got a pile of towels. We consulted the neighbor who wanted to smelt and has experience and all. We went in search og things to attach to the pipes and different stop valves. After some consulting of a plumbing guy, we got some nifty ones you smelt right onto the pipe.

Within 20 minutes of getting home they were both on and we could turn the water on. Ah a shower. The ability to flush the toilet. Washing of the baby diapers. So many fabulous things happen with running water in the house.

Thank goodness for neighbors.

House repairs are nutso!

Ready for the French Drain update? So our grass is beautiful! We seeded it a week ago, and its all coming in thick and dark green. The sod on the other hand...yeah its brown and dying. Looks like we will pull it up, pitch it, and put down more seed.

Things that happened today: The back of the house has been removed. Ok not the whole back. I just think of doll houses where the back is open when I say that. When we pulled off the back stuff it was all wet and gross inside. In fact, we also discovered the air conditioner was leaking freon. The previous owners (gotta love them) had wrapped the in pipe in the door sealing tape (you know the weatherproofing stuff) then caulked the heck out if it. So once the caulk was removed and the paneling taken off, it was very obvious what was going on. Well, I thought it was white mold, but no. It was ice crystals. Sweet, we were colling the wall, and keeping water in the wall as well. No wonder we have black mold growing on the back wall.

So we stapled up a whole pile of plastic sheeting to cover the wall (since its supposed to possibly rain on us overnight). And that will be finished tommorow. We don't even have to replace all that much insulation.

Oh, and guess what. We bought house paint. It appears that half the house is slightly lighter than the paint we bought from sun fading, but thats fine. Oh, and I bought satin finish. Why? Because its pretty, thats why. Whats on the house? Flat. Do I care? No. We needed an excuse to repaint anyway. Besides there are several places where we need to sand, reprime and paint so there isn't the strange peeling funky wood thing going on. But, whatever. I got the panels we are using for patching painted and in the garage. Yeah, getting the more expensive stuff is worth it. I think the whole 5 gallon bucket might cover the entire house. Well our side that is. And it will happen too. Even if I have to incorporate a painting party.

As for the little monster: Oh yeah, Alice got her 6 mo shots yesterday. She has been, of course difficult. I carried her around in the strap on carrier for 3 hours until she fell asleep on me. Then I put her down and painted. She has grown even longer. 26 3/4 in and 15lbs. So her weight percentile has gone down, and her heigth shot way way up. Thats right, only 17% of 6 mo old babies are longer than her. Can you believe she has grown almost 8 inches longer since she was 2 days old? The doc didn't act like we need to worry about her weight, but if she doesn't start to pack on the weight, I may get concerned.

Oh man, I finished this, but I am adding to it cause its too funny. So when we took Alice to ger her shots, she started wailing before she even got stuck. Why? Well they have these oral solution immunizations. And, you guessed it, they are a loverly syrup of anti-illness. Well, Alice is at that special time in a girls life when she hates all things sweet. Case in point: applesauce. I gave her a bite (her first taste) she immediately pushes it out of her mouth, and onto the bib. I show Daniel (because he has never seen her reject a food) and he thinks its funny and offers to eat the applesauce. Then he commenced patronizing her by holding her and offering her more bites of applesauce. I am sure this traumatic memory (sarcasm, sarcasm) was triggered by the forcing her to eat the sweet medicine. So she is beet red and on her back wailing with just the oral solution. Funny at the time, not so funny when we give her baby ibuprofen and I end up with most of it on my shirt while she cries as well. Somehow broccoli can solve all of her problems, though she prefers green beans.

Life on the Farm

So Daniel halped Steve fix the leaky outside faucet. It only took a trip to 2 different stores. Thank goodness Home Depot carries everything and thier mother in the store. I wonder what people did before home depot was here? Drive to KC?

Anyway, Steve and his wife (still don't know her name) want to watch our kid. Steve aparrantly loves babies and regrets waiting so long before having thier only one (I think Ariana is like 9 or 10 now). So the next time I want to go to Omaha they will watch her. But I don't know if I trust them enough for that. Maybe for a little date/night out. Like if we decided to actually go to something adultish, but for the whole day? Not likely.

Oh yeah, so Steve's wife wants to take out all the 'nature' going on in our front yards. And yes there is alot. In fact when we first started looking at the place I was like, ok lets remove half of it and it will be cool. And if I can convince my father to come choppy chop a tree or two from our yard, even better. Even if he just provides a chainsaw, that will be cool. We have ladders. at least 3 between the 2 garages. They want to move the chairs that are out front to the back yard, and maybe get more grass. Amen sistah! Gimme some grass in my front yard. I figure we can move some of the stuff from the front, to the back. I wonder if there are people in the ward that know about tree removal. Maybe we will send out an email saying, anyone that wants to climb trees, and chop them down, is invited over some day. You know the typical bribe of pizza almost always works. If nothing else, tree removal day will totally ok for having people over. And when I say tree, I mean short little volunteer trees.