Pictures!

Gingerbread Men!

Tree!

Christmas Preparations

I've noticed that part of the reason I never post is because I like to have pictures to go with all my posts. But obviously wanting to post pictures doesn't actually make me post pictures, it just makes me not post at all. So here's a post without pictures, and if I get around to taking some pics, I'll post them later :D

I was a little stressed about Christmas the past couple weeks, (mainly due to a fairly sizable project I'd committed to that was taking longer than I expected) but that's in the past and things are well in hand now, so I thought it was time for an update.

The big thing this year was that, after two Christmases away from home when we did absolutely no decorating, we were finally going to have a tree again, and we do. The implied corollary was that by Christmas the house would be ready to receive a tree. Whether that goal has been reached is debatable-- we hired someone to sheetrock the downstairs part of the addition, so the tree is at least surrounded by walls instead of studs and exposed insulation, (see the Great Remodeling Escapade for more about that) but there is still exposed framing above, it's still sitting on a plywood floor, there are still construction materials surrounding it... it actually looks a little silly right now, but in a good way. After Jeff brought it in and set it up yesterday, I somehow managed to get all the lights and ornaments on it. We'll move the couch in from the other room tonight or tomorrow, and the end tables, so we can set up some candles, and I think it will be cheery for our Christmas eve first fire in the fireplace.

After decorating the tree, I started another fun project-- making gingerbread men! I've never actually made gingerbread men before-- I've made gingerbread houses, and I think a gingerbread stocking one year, but never good ol' fashioned gingerbread men. I got the idea when I came across this website with gingerbread recipes dating back to the fifteenth century. I thought I'd make gingerbread men for my coworkers and include funny old gingerbread recipes as part of the package. I did NOT get around to the old recipe part, but the men (and women!) came out very cute, and the gingerbread is very tasty. I decorated them only with white royal icing piped through a thin round tip, to try to give them a "classic" look, and I made 5 of them to *sort of* look like the people I work with and handed them out this morning. I think they were well received. I tried to take a picture this morning but the camera battery died and I just wasn't in the mood to deal with it. There were 7 more that I didn't give away, so I'll try to photograph them later.

I've been wrapping gifts as I get them, so everything is now wrapped and just waiting to be put under the tree-- I think I'll do that tonight, unless Jeff beats me to it. Then, I just have to wrap what I have for Jeff, which I'm also planning to do tonight, and the only thing left to do to prepare will be shopping for Christmas Eve noshing goodies, Christmas morning breakfast, and my contributions to mom's Christmas dinner and Rachael's Christmas Evening get together.

Fun, fun! :D

It's All About the Ice Cream

This is from an e-mail forward I got today, cleaned up a little for grammar and clarity. I doubt it's a true story, but the analogy is a good one.

The most eye-opening civics lesson I’ve ever had was while teaching third grade. The presidential election was heating up and some of the children showed an interest, so I decided we would have an election for a class president. We would choose our nominees, they would each make a campaign speech and the class would vote.

To simplify the process, candidates were nominated by other class members. We discussed what kinds of characteristics these students should have. We got many nominations, and from those, Jamie and Olivia were picked to run for the top spot.

The class did a great job in their selections. Both candidates were good kids. The day arrived when they were to make their speeches, and Jamie went first. He had specific ideas about how to make our class a better place. He ended by promising to do his very best. Everyone applauded. He sat down, and Olivia came to the podium. Her speech was concise. She said, "If you will vote for me, I will give you ice cream." She sat down.

The class went wild. "Yes! Yes! We want ice cream." A discussion followed. How did she plan to pay for the ice cream? She wasn't sure. Would her parents buy it or would the class pay for it? She didn't know. The class really didn't care. All they were thinking about was ice cream. Jamie was forgotten, and Olivia won by a landslide.

Every time Barack Obama opens his mouth he offers ice cream, and fifty percent of America reacts like nine year olds. They want ice cream. The other fifty percent know they're going to have to feed the cow.

Cleaning Bathrooms

I just want to take this opportunity to say what a wonderful husband I have. In addition to all the other things he does (like remodeling our house) he cleans the bathrooms. He always cleans the bathrooms. He cleans the toilets, and the mildew on the bad caulk job in our shower, and the sinks and mirrors and everything else. I occasionally clean some minor thing in the bathroom, but I don't think I've cleaned a toilet since we've been married.

AND... I never even asked him to.

He's the best. Thanks sweetie :-*

My New Neice

Abigail Brooke Clark
born Oct. 4, 2008 7:50 am
5 lbs, 12 oz

and here with her big brother:

New Remodeling Blog

Jeff and I have decided to create a new blog dedicated to the remodeling project where we will be co-authors.  All construction news from here on out will be posted at http://jaremodel.blogspot.com  (easy to remember: J A Remodel)

The brick post is over there as well.

Brick

We picked out a brick today.  Had to order it, but here is a photo:

of course, every monitor is different, and while I adjusted the color of this photo so that it looks really really like the actual brick on MY monitor, what you see could be totally different. And our mortar joints won't have that line in them.  So, you'll just have to come visit and see it in person once the fireplace is built.  :oD

Windows and other updates

Ok, so the windows are in. This should be very exciting, and it was when we first saw them. However, the excitement has been tempered a bit by the discovery that the guys neglected to install the sill flashing before setting the windows. The roll and the instructions were sitting right on TOP of the windows in the garage, but they just threw it on the floor (apparently) and ignored it. So now we have to decide whether we want to 1. just not put the sill flashing in, 2. Jeff try to take the windows out himself and flash them (not likely, they’re VERY heavy) or 3. get the guys back here to redo it and risk them damaging the windows taking them out and reinstalling them. Obviously, none of these are particularly appealing options, and it is SO frustrating to not be able to get anyone to do ANYTHING right. I just feel crappy about the whole thing.

On a brighter note (hopefully) the mason is coming Saturday to start working on the fireplace. He should be able to get the whole firebox built, but will need 3 more days to build the chimney. This is an inherent constraint of working with brick—you can only stack up so much at a time, because it gets too heavy and will start squashing the mortar. So you stack so many courses, let the mortar harden, and come back for more. Unfortunately (I seem to be typing that word too often lately) he is working in Raleigh for the next few weeks, so the 3 days he works on the chimney will be 3 Saturdays…. so that won’t be completed for a while. And we can’t get the framing inspected till the chimney is done, which holds us up being able to insulate and sheetrock.But, what can ya do.I’m sure the time will go quickly, and we don’t have set dates for the electrician and mechanical guy to come either, so depending on their schedules the chimney might not even delay things all that much.

Oh, and one other setback… going back to the framer. He was always going to shingle the roof. It was part of his original estimate, it was never discussed as any kind of problem, etc. But when he showed up Monday, he told Jeff that his guys “didn’t want to do it.” So now we need to get a roofer too, which is undoubtedly going to be more expensive. ::sigh::

Thursday, we’re going to look at bricks for the inside of the fireplace (not the firebox, but the raised hearth and the exposed brick surrounding the opening)

I’ll keep ya posted.

Living Room Ceiling

For today's project, we decided to tear down the horrible "octagonal tray ceiling" in the living room.  This silly thing not only looked totally idiotic, but also completely destroyed any air currents created by the ceiling fan when it was turned on, so it had to go.  Since that room is now half framing anyway, why not now?

We moved the rest of the living room furniture into the future dining room, and actually set it up as a living  room, so we'll actually have a real room to retreat to now when we need to get away from the construction.  I should take a picture tomorrow, since I didn't do it today.  Then Jeff started tearing down the sheetrock on the living room ceiling, exposing the most completely absurd framing job either of us had ever seen.  I would have taken more pictures, but my camera battery died (the new one, I swear, I'm battery-impaired or something) and it wasn't recharged till after everything was down.  

Seriously though, it was like some guy just randomly started throwing 2x4's up there and when it looked like he had enough he covered it with sheetrock.  It was all made of random pieces fitted together every which way, with the triple 2x4 that was ostensibly holding the frame to the ceiling not actually attached to the ceiling... so the frame was really holding it up....  no wonder it had separated about 1/8 of an inch since we moved in.  And other, totally useless, boards were nailed to the wall with like, 15 nails.  Of which 10 didn't actually hit anything but sheetrock.  Yeah.  

So, here's a couple pics showing the living room after the ceiling was taken down and we'd hauled all the debris out and put it in the truck for Jeff to take to the recycle center in the morning.  You should have seen the pile, but unfortunately that potential picture was lost to the dead battery as well.   Maybe I'll take a picture of the loaded truck in the morning.

MESS!

Ugh.  The scene that greeted us when we got home today was not quite as nice as yesterday.  Yes, the second floor and roof are framed, and they're lookin' good from outside:

Inside, on the other hand, is another story...

All their tools, scraps, debris, just littering the bedroom, guess they didn't think we'd need a place to sleep tonight.  And worse than that, they left the window openings wide open!  Hello?  Jeff is out there now covering them with plastic.  ::sigh:: I sure hope they're planning to come back tomorrow.

Here's the disaster area outside:

Addition!!!

Ok, I know it's been WAAAAY too long since I posted anything, but here I am again, with great news. Most people who read this blog already know pretty much the state of things (which is part of why it's so easy to neglect posting) but most of you haven't SEEN the latest, so here goes. Since many of you also haven't seen the previous few stages, I'm going to take the advice of Mary Poppins, a very wise woman: "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start"

The beginning: If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go into the archives and read about the hassle we had getting a variance for this thing, and look at the floor plans. :D

The hole:



The footing:
(too bad they poured the fireplace footing WAY too big, so there's like 2 feet of concrete hanging out past the chimney foundation, and they didn't pour the wall footing quite wide enough so the wall is sitting RIGHT at the very edge... but oh well, the inspector didn't care)


The foundation:Now we're getting somewhere! Actual construction! This was very exciting, and I'm happy to say that despite a dubious job on the concrete work, the brick is very well done. This was a little stressful in addition to being exciting, because the foundation LOOKED really small compared to the vision in my head. Foundations ALWAYS look smaller than you expect, but it was still unnerving.


The new condenser:
Even though I'm totally not an Air Conditioning person, having it down here where it's regularly in the 90's or 100's for weeks or more at a stretch during the summer is pretty important. Our old condenser was barely big enough for the house without the addition, and it was also in pretty rough shape. So here's the shiny, new (BIG) 4 ton unit.


The First Floor:
They framed the first floor Wednesday (unfortunately had to redo a lot of it Thursday, since they framed all the window openings the exact size of the windows) and then Thursday they closed it in and covered it with the second floor. I think Jeff's body language says it all.


And finally, drumroll please......

The Living Room!
Because of the way the existing house is framed, we needed a pretty substantial beam to hold up the outside wall of the house. To put the second floor on, they needed to put the beam in, and to do that they had to break through into the house, even though the windows aren't in yet. So when we got home, it was to a HUGE (in comparison to the original) new living room. The space is bigger than it seemed from outside, and feels really really good. the window sizes look good, everything is living up to "the vision" and we're really really excited. (The post in the opening there is temporary, they just didn't get to taking it out yesterday.) This photo is probably more meaningful to those who've seen the house as it was, but trust me, it's a HUGE difference.

They're planning to have the second floor framed today, and break through into the bedroom, which means.... YES! no more sleeping on the floor! We've been sleeping on a mattress on the floor for 15 months due to not being able to get our box spring up the stairs. Before they put the windows in, the framers are going to put the box spring in through the wall. So tonight, we should have a bed.

I'll post more tomorrow :-D

Grandkids

All the grandkids (my parents' grandkids) were gathered in one place this past weekend.  From left to right:  Liam Wolfe, Alethea Thompson, Hunter Thompson, Logan Clark, Silas Wolfe, Shamus Wolfe

Cute huh?

A Word of Advice, from the (not so) Wise

When you go to the beach, it's not enough just to buy sunscreen.

That's right folks, simply buying the sunscreen and setting it in the sand next to your towel does not protect against sunburn.  Also, slathering it on your back but completely neglecting chest, face and legs is also horribly insufficient.

I will not post photos proving my point.  You'll just have to take my word for it...

Bridge!

Jeff built our first bridge yesterday! And I helped! I don't have a ton of time to write right now, but I think pictures speak louder in this case anyway.

Squaring it up:

Bridging is in, but the light is fading fast:

He got all but the end pieces of decking on (those needed to be ripped down and shaped) but the dark won!

The next morning: FINISHED!

(eventually the area between the decks will be landscaped, with a nice, stepping-stone path down to the bridge)

Doesn't it look lovely from upstream?

Barber-que

Last night we had a fun time with all Jeff's co-workers over for a barbecue in our newly yard-like backyard. (Although down here I suppose I should say we had a cook-out, since there was no pork, no vinegar, and no slow-cooking in sight.) 5 of his co-workers, four of their spouses, 5 assorted kids, and lots of chairs, salads, appetizers, desserts and beverages started showing up at our door around 6 o'clock. Jim brought us a pot with a little Japanese maple and an ornamental peach tree, and Brad brought Jeff this fancy beer from Holland that comes in these crazy bottles with stoppers. By 7:30 Floyd had taken over the grill, everyone was happily filling their bellies and the kids were running around the yard having a great time. One of the kids, Maggie, who I guess was about 13 (7th grade) treated us to a pretty amazing show of walking on her hands-- even down a step! I wish I'd had a camera.

It was a good time. I can see how Jeff and his "work buddies" get along so well. The funniest thing, though, is that even though they all get along really well in the office, this seems to be the first time that camaraderie has left the office.... even though some of them have been working together for 10 years. As they left, a few of them were already making plans to "do this at our house" next year.

A Funny Story

So, Jeff and I like to drink wine.  We don't go crazy or anything, but we like to have a glass with dinner pretty regularly, and to keep ourselves to a budget we take our monthly wine allowance to Total Wine and More at the beginning of each month and pick out our bottles for the month.  Well, we were almost finished with the ritual tonight-- I had picked mine and Jeff needed a $7 bottle to be right on the money.  He wanted to try something new, so we're trolling around the store, trying to find something interesting-looking, when all of a sudden out of nowhere a salesman comes walking over to us, asking quite enthusiastically, "What does the perfect glass of red wine taste like?"

Jeff and I look at each other, and back at him, slightly confused, and he asks again.  I shrug, not sure how to describe the "perfect glass of red wine"  and Jeff says "Aahhhh" in a contented voice.

The salesman's reply to this: "Six dollars and ninety-nine cents, Nostrada Tempranillo Tarragona"

"huh?"

"Nostrada Tempranillo Tarragona, it's a fantastic wine, we sell tons of it, people come back looking for it.  More even than a Blackstone or--"

"Blackstone's one of my favorites," says Jeff

"Oh!" says the salesman, "Oh, you're going to love this, I'm going to blow you away, come here..."

He scampers over to a computer, and we follow along and watch over his shoulder as he pulls up the monthly sales records for Blackstone Merlot, Jeff's favorite wine and one the salesguy says is probably the most popular wine in the country right now.  They sell about a case a week, with some weeks quite a bit higher.  Then he looks up the Nostrada he's been touting-- the store sells over 40 bottles most weeks.  So Jeff says sure, throw it at me.  It's the exact price we were looking for after all, and at this point it's definitely safe to say it's "interesting."  The guy leads us to the Spain section of the store, picks an unassuming bottle off the bottom shelf, hands it to Jeff, and hurries away as suddenly as he appeared.  We took the bottle home and of course had to try it right away, and you know what?

It's delicious.  

Pear Tart

My entire family (except for Rose and Nate, waaaaay down in Mississippi) convened at Bradley's and Clayton's apartment for Easter this year and I was asked to bring a dessert. Actually I think I asked Brad what he wanted me to bring and was told "if theres anything u can think of for dessert u can bring that cuz i haven't any idea what to make"

So, being me, I decided to make a pear tart, which I have never done before and which required the purchase of not only ingredients, but also a tart pan in which to bake said tart. It was a multi-step process that involved pre-freezing and pre-baking the crust, whipping up a frangipani base (no, I never heard of that either till I found the recipe) and poaching the pears in a mixture of water, sugar, cloves, lemon, and vanilla before slicing them and placing them on top of the almond frangipani. However, I haven't taken on any outrageously difficult or time consuming projects lately, so I was overdue, and honestly the tart wasn't as much work as I thought it'd be from reading the recipe.

I think the results ended up looking pretty good, and the tart was very tasty as well, though it was very sweet. I think I'll omit most if not all the sugar from the pears next time.

Teaching

For anyone who was wondering, my first class was a week ago tonight (I'm not teaching tonight, because the school is closed for one of those holidays that only schools and governments get-- Martin Luther King Jr. day)  I think all in all, both classes (we meet Monday and Wednesday nights for 3 1/2 HOURS each time) went pretty well.  I'm already making lists of what to do differently when - and if - I teach this class again, but mostly just ideas of things that may work better, not things that went wrong.  It's hard to write specifics about drafting when I'm not really writing to a drafting audience (with a couple exceptions) but I'm happy with my students' progress so far.  I'll post updates if anything interesting happens. :o)

New Year, New Color

same layout, but a slightly different look.  I can't promise it will last all year though :o)

Soon I will delete my "books II have read in 2007" and start a "books I have read in 2008" list... but, I figure I have till I actually finish a book in 2008 to do that.  

ok this is a pointless post, I think I'll stop now. Auf Wiedersehen.