Moved the crib in and put most of the trim up in the nursery yesterday.  Putting the trim back up around the window is a bit trickier than I thought.  I'm gonna work on that tonight, and hopefully move the rest of the furniture in.

The painters tape turned out to be a bit too sticky and pulled paint up from some of the trim.  Combine that with the nail holes I'm gonna need to make to put the window back together and we are going to need to paint the trim as well.  I'm not looking forward to that.  I want the room to be done.  I am going to wait a few weeks to make sure the new paint on the walls has time to fully cure.  We have some better painter's tape for that, too.  The wait will also give me a chance to get some paint up in the bathroom.

Have I ever said how much I hate painting?  And it doesn't help that I'm really not any good at it.

Update: Putting the trim up turned out not to be quite so hard after all.  I also hung the 'curtains' and finished moving in furniture.  I'm still looking for a small table and lamp for the room.  A rug would be nice as well.

The 'curtains' we used are kind of hard to explain, since they aren't traditional curtains at all.  They are small fleece blankets cut to the exact size of the window and stretched tight across it.  They can't be drawn, but in the evenings when the room starts to get dark they kind of light up for a very cool effect.

I painted the second coat yesterday evening, and just finished going around the edge with a small brush today.  Now I'll let it get good and dry and go back in with a razor knife to help take down the painter's tape.  I'll do that on whichever evening this week Alice spends with Grandpa and Grandma -- probably Thursday, since that's Melody's next appointment.

The nursery is no longer white.  In fact, my initial impression is that the first coat went on well enough that even the second will only be a formality.  Initial impressions can be deceiving, but if it works out and if I can apply the second coat during Alice' nap tomorrow, then I might even be able to finish painting this weekend.

After the painting is done, I need to remove all the painter's tape, put the trim back up that I removed to install the new drywall, clean the trim, clean the floor, replace the light switch, and bring in furniture.  Furniture will consist of the crib, changing table, rocking chair, diaper pail, and a night stand of some kind yet to be determined.

This weekend is the city-wide rummage sale.  In preparation for the baby I've been watching rummage sales all summer, looking for baby clothes and other needed items.  It's been sparse pickings;  before today I haven't been able to find more than 3 sales on any weekend, and one weekend had nothing at all.  Today I hit 14 sales in 2 1/2 hours based on only 7 ads.  I have another 19 ads to visit tomorrow.

My specific targets include 3mo to 1yr boys clothes (we have a bunch of 0-3mo now), a diaper pail, a sling, and most of all a nice baby monitor.  If I happen to see a really good bargain I want to pick up a trailer for my bike that Alice can ride in, or a basinet so we can return the one we paid $100 for.  I already found the diaper pail, but I can always use more clothes.  I found one baby monitor, but I didn't buy it because it was too similar to the one we already have that doesn't work very well.  I'm hoping to find a nicer model for cheap.  I also picked up a Chutes and Ladders game for Alice.

In between rummaging expeditions I'm gonna be painting.  I primed the nursery earlier this week, and I hope to get at least two coats of paint on before the weekend is up.  After the first two coats I'll decide whether I need or third or can just finish up with edging.  I might even have time to do one of those this weekend, but I'm not counting on it.

I meant to write about this a while ago, but forgot.  As of 6/30/08, we've been in this hour for a year.

Also:  at long last the bathroom sink is working again, and we have grounded and gfcl protected outlets in the bathroom.  I also have a new (grounded) outlet and drywall up in the nursery.

On the other hand, the wood behind the door hinges for Alice' room has pretty much disintegrated.  I'm not quite sure how I'm going to fix that yet.

Alice loves slides.  Last year someone at church gave us just the plastic slide part to put one in our yard, but we didn't have anything to attach it to.  I finally tracked down a couple pallets, and used one to make a platform for part of it.  I have two other pallets that we'll use to keep stuff off the floor in the part of the basement that occasionally gets wet.

Alice had a lot of fun at VBS this week.  Mommy and Daddy had a nice vacation, too, but we're glad Alice is home.  We went to Elkhorn on Friday for the last day to see the closing program.  Here's a picture I took of Alice and Grandpa:

Melody spent some money she got for Mother's Day on a couple rose bushes and a hydrangea, so I helped her plant those this evening.  We actually got some good use out of one of Alice' toy garden tools, as it was just the right size to help dig out the bottom of the hole for the roses.

I also looked up some information on compost piles, and discovered I have a problem.  Supposedly, one key to a successful compost file is a good mix of 'greens' and 'browns', which means nitrogen-rich items like grass clippings and table scraps vs carbon-rich items like dead leaves or even cardboard.  The web site I found recommended mixing 25 to 1 in favor of browns.  The pile I put together is almost entirely greens. 

I do think the compost pile will work out okay.  I have some dead leaves left over from last fall that I bagged before I knew the city would take them, some cardboard boxes left over from when we moved in, and some tree branches I pruned off the large bush behind the ground.  All that needs to broken down to small pieces manually before I can include it in the pile, but I'll get it in there in time (this is going to be one big pile pretty soon!).  I also get the feeling that green/brown mix just determines whether the compost is more manure-like or more mulch-like, and maybe how much it smells (enough brown items and it won't smell at all).

We're working on turning the small bedroom upstairs into a nursery.  Melody has already started making some curtains, and we've talked about paint colors.  My job will be to put new drywall on the two outside walls. 

The funny thing is that this room is one of the few places in the house that already has real drywall.  Unfortunately, it looks like there's no insulation behind it, and it's cracked and damaged in a couple places (namely at the seams and behind the door).  While I have the studs exposed I'm going to run some wiring for some additional outlets.  There's only one outlet in the room right now.  I'm planning to add three more and set it up to I can easily run wire into the hallway to add one more.  With a little luck I'll be able to put it on a new circuit that's actually grounded. 

When the wire is installed I'll add insulation (it should be cheap this time of year) and then start putting up drywall.  There is an old vent pipe in the bathroom that we're thinking about moving so it runs up through the wall, so I'll have to leave that part for the end.  But I expect this will take me long enough that we're able to move the pipe (or at least know if we're moving it at all) before I get to that point.

When that's done we'll need to take down the glass shelves before we paint.  As far as making the room 'finished', we'll also want to re-do the ceiling and put in new carpet at some point in the future, but otherwise the room will be a much nicer place in the very near future.

I am at war.  Already the bodies of enemy are piled high on the wagon.  Even though I estimate there are still five days of battle before the main offensive is complete, as in any war I also need to go on patrol.  And it was on patrol that the first casualty came.  There I encountered an enemy so determined that my weapon (shovel) was damaged removing him from the earth.  I am also running low on ammunition (weed killer), but still I persist.  Anywhere I see the yellow sign of the enemy I go to work uprooting his vile presence.  I will triumph in the end.

I had planned to wait until all the dandelions had been pulled to mow the lawn so that I could use the buds on the dandelions to help me spot them, but I won't be able to do that.  The lawn is getting so dense that it is impeding my efforts, and I think also dulling the shovel (which helped contribute to it's demise).  So now I'm going to quickly go pull up the weeds that already have buds and not worry about the rest until after I've mowed, which probably won't be until Sunday afternoon.

I have declared war on my dandelions this year.  I've been using Melody's gardening shovel to pry them up first, and then spraying some broad-leaf killer on the newly exposed ground to kill the root.  I must have pulled up hundreds of them.  I think our lawn in places is more dandelion than grass.  I think I'll have enough to completely fill the smaller of our garbage bins, though I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them.  The city doesn't take yard waste. 

Unfortunately, the dandelions aren't the only weed in the yard.  I have a couple other varieties that I can't name, as well as some clover.  I don't mind the clover as much but other weeds will need to go.  This year, however, the dandelions will be enough, and I have the blisters to prove it.  When I finish with them (I think I'm about 2/3 done) I'm going to sow some grass seed to help fill in the gaps.  Otherwise I'd have just as many dandelions next year from seeds that drift in from the neighborhood.

Next year I'll attack this other weed we have, and when it's gone I'll also mow very close to the ground and rake the yard, before putting down grass seed as well as some fertilizer.  Then I should an almost brand new yard.  At least,  I hope so.

We went to Menard's yesterday.   They've built a big new store that's almost ready to open, so the old location is having some pretty good sales to reduce stock for the move.  It was a mad house, and they're not even that far into it.  We came away with the sink that we'd been looking at, for $40 less than the regular price and $10 less than the best sale price we'd seen.  I thought about waiting longer, but it was the last one.  Now it's ours, and it's waiting in the garage for a chance to install it.

We also picked up a faucet for nearly 1/2 off and some stain for the porch and deck for 1/4 off.  I think maybe I should have waited a week on the stain: I probably could have gone back and still found some for even less.  In all we spent $160 there- ouch.

It's raining again.  Actually, it doesn't feel like we've had any more rain this year than in other years.  What we did have a whole lot of snow, and now it's melted and the water really hasn't gone anywhere yet.  There have been near-continuous flood warning in the area for the past month. 

Our house is less than 1/2 mile from a small creek that feeds into the Rock river, and it's in the flood plane for that creek, but I'm not worried.  Several years ago the city started a project to clean up the nearby lake.  They drained the lake and did most of the cleanup, but then funding ran out and the lake has not yet been filled.  So before any serious flooding reaches our home we'd have to get enough water to completely fill that lake bed.  It also helps that floor level is about 4 feet above ground on the main level.

There are two ways all this water does impact me directly, though.

One of the flooded areas comes right next to highway 14, which I take to work every day.  For the past 6 weeks the water has come right up to the edge of the road and for the past 3 weeks it's covered about 5 inches of the 2 foot shoulder.  This morning it was into the north-bound lane about 8 inches, and it's still rising.  I might have an interesting drive home.

The other thing is that even if there's no flooding some of that water has the potential to seep into the basement.  I'd been lucky so far, but last August's record rainfalls proved that our basement is vulnerable.  This morning it finally started leaking.  I'm still not worried-- it's not a large leak and the water flows directly to the drain.  What does concern me is that every time water comes in, the leak is worn just a little wider and will be a little worse the next time.  But this one is small enough we have some time before it becomes serious.

Update: It stopped raining late this morning, so maybe the water on the road can recede some today.
Update2: It started raining again this afternoon.  On the drive home there was lightning everywhere, there were tornado warnings the next county over, and the half the opposite lane was under water.

Got the sandals out today for the first time.  I also moved the lawn chairs back to the front porch and hooked up the garden hose.  It's nice to see the weather staying warm.

Alice is staying with my folks tonight and Melody has chorus practice until late, so I'm home alone this evening.  So far I've used the time well: 

• Cleared the garage enough to put my car in again.
• Put out the trash, including a bunch of debris left over from last week's bath tub project and a few items that had been hidden in the yard for most of the winter. I saved some of the better boards for future use.
• Cleaned the litter box. 
  
• Broke up the old tub a little more to make it easier to put in a trash bin for next week.
  
• Spread just a little gravel back on the driveway that had been pushed into the grass by snowplows over the winter.  Unfortunately, the gravel doesn't rake well or pick up easy with the shovel, so that could turn into a much bigger job spreading it all later.
• Looked at the cleaning out the space in front of the basement window, but that's lined with brick two layers deep, so it will need to wait for some weekend time.
• Started to re-hang the gutter over the back door, but I'll need a bigger ladder.  I was hoping the step-stool would be tall enough, but I need just one more step- maybe another 6 inches.  I'm still planning to not buy a ladder anymore this year.  Instead I'll borrow one for this project.

So what does a guy eat for dinner when he's home alone?  Canned tuna.  It went well with the ramen I had for lunch.  You'd think I was back in college.

This morning I had the privilege of being the first person to use our new shower.  We still need to caulk the outer edge of the surround, and sand, prime, and paint around the outside, but it's at least usable now.  The water pressure is great, since we now stand closer to the head and cleaned out the valve a little bit.  I can tell that it's just styrofoam supporting plastic, though.  You can feel it compress just a bit while you stand there. 

We're debating the merits of getting a new shower head.  On the one hand, there's nothing wrong with the one we have, so why spend the money?  Also, I've heard statistically that shower heads are typically among the first things people replace when buying a new home, so it won't help sell the house later and we can't justify the expense that way.  On the other hand, we didn't replace the shower head when we bought the house and it's getting kinda old and gunky.  Also, now that the tub is higher the bottom of the head is at my shoulder level.  I'm at least gonna price out a few, and see what it will cost to replace it with one that matches the chrome in the tub and has a bend to raise back up over my head.  Knowing how much it costs will make it easier for me to resist.

I was going to buy a ladder this year with some tax return money, but to offset the costs of updating the bathroom I've decided it can wait.  The only project on my list for this summer where I really need it is fixing the gutter, and I think I can get that one done with the step stool.

We had some issues with getting the tub surround in securely and sealed properly.  We're pretty sure those are solved, but we have to wait 'til tomorrow for the glue to fully set.  Then we can finish caulking around the edge and get everything tidied up.  That means no shower until Tuesday morning, but we should be able to give Alice a bath tomorrow evening.  I'm taking off work tomorrow to help finish up, because I won't be able to shower, and because I'm getting sick (persistent sore throat).

All in all it looks pretty good.  It could be better, of course: they sent the wrong color tub (flat instead of glossy) and we didn't know until it was already set, and we had to do a lot of work to adapt the surround to our house, since it was designed for a trailer.  It also needs some more paint, and we'll have exposed sub-floor for a little while until we have time to come back and do the rest of it.  But it's definitely NOT the eye-sore it was before.

It turns out that our old bathtub was made of concrete.  We never knew for sure before yesterday, but had thought it was either all ceramic porcelain or cast iron.  The truth finally came out when we removed it yesterday.  I'd never heard of a concrete bathtub.  Unfortunately, we had to demolish it to remove it, so I don't have any pictures.  It was one heavy beast.

The new tub is not as deep as the old one, but we compensated by placing the overflow drain as high as possible.  We'll still lose as much as an inch of depth, but that's okay because it just means we save a little water .  Even though it's not as deep it's higher, because it sits up in the air a little.  Work is progressing well:  The tub is in place --permanently, with floor-leveling cement holding it there-- but not hooked up yet.  Drywall is up around it it, and the mud is pretty much done.  While the mud dries we'll hook up the plumbing and get supper.  Then we should be able to sand it, wipe it down to clear the dust, and hang the surround.  With luck that will all happen yet this evening, so I can get things cleaned up tomorrow afternoon.

For the first time this year I was able to take my daily walk without the need of any extra clothing.  I was able to do it with just a sweater yesterday, but it was a sweater I keep at my desk for when the office gets cold.  Today I was outside with just jeans and a polo. 

It looks like it's gonna be a nice weekend.  A great chance to get some work done around the house .

I found a shovel (spade) at Menards for $3, and it's only $.99 if I can find the mail-in rebate coupon in one of their flyers.  I also picked up a garden hose, since it was nearly two dollars less there than we had seen them elsewhere, and some nails so I can hang the shovel in the garage.

If I get time this weekend I'll use the shovel to spread out some of the gravel that's beens scraped off of our driveway by snowplows.  It probably won't happen this week, though, because of the bigger project we're tackling...

Dad and Jacob are coming over tomorrow evening, and we're going to start work replacing the bathtub.  It's exciting.  I'm concerned that it may be just a hair too big when you include the drywall, but we have some ideas for getting around that problem if it becomes an issue:  either attach the tub surround directly to the studs with no drywall behind or use some paneling as the backing instead of drywall.  No matter what happens, it should be a lot nicer than what's in there right now.

Melody will be in Nebraska with Alice, visiting Jaci and Joy while all this is going on.  She was going to get some before-and-after pictures, but unless she did that yesterday it looks like she missed her chance for the before shots.