Even More

Now the flooding has spread to the family room. UGH!!! I am not happy. In fact, I am VERY grumpy! I wonder if the previous owners knew about this problem...

We're All Wet

Today, I went back into the craft room to return a paint brush that was played with without permission. (grrr. It was one of my good ones too!) Anyway, I stepped next to a box and felt a very damp spot. I thought, "Crap! The dog peed on the floor." So I got down on the floor to smell it and make sure. (Ah, the joys of pet ownership.) However, I got a surprise when I smelled something else entirely. I couldn't place the smell, so I called Ty in to check it out. He couldn't identify the smell either. Then, he noticed that the box next to the wet spot was soaked half-way up. Uh-oh. Something broke and leaked all over. So we opened up the box and found a whole bunch of candles, but they were all solid and nothing was leaking. Ty got up and walked across the floor and discovered that it was ALL wet! Apparently, a pipe outside the house was leaking. A lot! We had to vacuum out the window well and down into a hole. We removed all of the boxes out of the room and had to open a few to check to see if anything was damaged. Luckily, nothing was ruined. Then, we began vacuuming up the water from the carpet. Of course, the hose on Ty's shop-vac broke, so Ty had to go borrow my dad's. While he was gone, I went over it with the carpet cleaner. I had to dump it twice because it filled the reservoir up to the top. Finally, Ty realized that it was futile as long as the pad was soaked. So, we ripped up the carpet and had to chunk out the pad. It was literally dripping and there were puddles standing on the concrete. Then, we had to re-vacuum up the carpet. What a mess! I think the carpet can be saved and the wall is okay as well. Thank goodness for insurance. Of course, all this happened two days before I go in for surgery! (More about that later.) I guess I should have taken pictures of all the carnage, but I was so absorbed in the clean up that I didn't think about it until the carpet was laying back down and the fan was at work. Sorry, I guess I'm out of "blogger" mode.
About the surgery. On Tuesday, I am going in for a partial hysterectomy. I have a very difficult time once a month. Heavy flow, pain that debilitates me, I turn into a total hag. Since we're done having kids, I don't really need all that plumbing, so Dr. Leavitt is taking out my Uterus. He's leaving the ovaries, so I won't have to start hormone replacement. He's doing it laprascopically, so the recovery time is a lot shorter; 7 days as opposed to 4-6 weeks. I may not even have to stay the night! So, if it's no trouble, maybe you could keep me in your prayers. ;0)

Getting there

The bathroom is done! Well, almost. Ty still has to put the toilet back together, but that's a 5 minute job. I'll post pictures when I make it back to the house with the camera. I'm afraid to take it over there right now cuz then I'll forget it and I won't have it for Easter morning and that just wouldn't do! (I apologize to all my English teachers for that run-on sentence!)
Now, we only have a few minor things to do. I discovered a drawer in Samantha's bathroom that the previous owners had glued something in and then tore out, so we need to sand out all the goopy, dried-on glue. Ty found a spot in the hall that didn't get touch-up painted, so we need to do a quick dab there. The fence in the backyard has these old window panes, complete with glass, nailed to it. Some of the glass has broken out, so there's a danger of getting cut. We've cleaned up the glass from the ground but we still need to take the silly things down. And the front and back yards need to be raked. There's still a lot of dog poop in the back yard, so I'll be sending the kids out with latex gloves and WalMart bags to clean that up. (Then out comes the sanitizer!!!) But that's it! Of course, the boxes still need to be unpacked and places need to be found for all our junk, but we can do that while we're living there. Actually, the raking doesn't really need to be done before we move in either.
So now we're all ready. Now if only the refrigerator would arrive...

It Never Ends

It seems that all I am posting about lately is the house and all of the things we are doing to it. Well, I wouldn't want to break that streak, so here's another one!
Ty's big project today was the kitchen cabinets.
Several of the cabinets needed to be re-caulked. There were huge gaps between the walls and the base and shelves.
Ty didn't want me to take his picture, so you know I HAD to.
The shelves also needed to be sanded down and repainted. There are a lot of cupboards and Ty had a big job ahead of him. He got them done and they look great. He went back to the house after dinner and now he's tidied up the garage and then he's going to caulk the gaps in the walls in Zach's room. The man's a maniac.
My project was removing the wallpaper in the bathroom. First, I peeled the first layer off. That took two garbage bags.

Next, I used my favorite new product, DIF. I don't care if the label says it's been proven to cause cancer in California. I'm in Idaho, so I should be safe, right?
First, I sprayed it on the walls. I started by spraying sections on the lower half of the walls. You can only do so much at a time or it sits too long. After it's been sprayed, it has to sit for 15-20 minutes. I tried to space it out so there wasn't a lot of standing around, but sometimes there was a little down time, so I'd go out into the kitchen and "supervise" Ty in his work.
Then I used a putty tool to scrape the wallpaper off. I can't believe how easy it is. When you spray on the DIF, you can see spots start bubbling up right away.
By the time you've waited for the 15 minutes, the paper just peels right off the wall. In some sections, all I had to do was start the peel with the putty thingy and then I could gently pull the paper off the wall. I got the entire bottom half of the bathroom done and two sections are done all the way up to the ceiling. Tomorrow I will finish the bathroom. I had to stop so I could get the kids home and make dinner. I also have piles of laundry to work on. It's been a little neglected these past few days. I didn't go back with Ty so I could get the kids bathed and ready for bed.
I'd better get off the computer so we can get family prayer and off to bed. Have a great night!

Worn Out

After a long day of working at the house and doing post-visitor clean up, we were all pretty tired. Tristan wanted to watch a movie to unwind, so he put in Secondhand Lions. We turned off all the lights and just relaxed. Samantha, Zachary, and I didn't make it through the whole movie. We were just so dang tired!
Samantha curled up on the couch. Doesn't she look so sweet?
Zachary wanted to cuddle and I had absolutely no problem with that. We kicked out the leg rest on the couch and snuggled in. He fell asleep almost instantly and when he goes to sleep, he turns into a little heater. I couldn't help but get drowsy myself. Soon, my head was resting on his and we were both in dream land. I love the little moments like this!