Day Twenty Three: Moving in to Hell's Furnace...

Dude. It was 110 degrees today in Felton. ONE-HUNDRED-AND-TEN-DEGREES-FAHRENHEIT-IN-FELTON. Hottest day on record since 1965.

And we decided to move today. Of course.

Our ridiculously wonderful friends showed up at 9:30, worked like crazed ants and were up at the house by 11:30 with almost 80% of our stuff!!! (SAY WHAT?) They hauled, they sweated, they smiled, they cursed, they laughed, they almost died from heat stroke... but they kept working. Box after box after sofa after bed after chair. We have some ridiculously fabulous friends.

Turns out the little AC unit that the previous owners massacred a window to install (with half-assed plywood and a little plastic accordion piece, no less) actually works! Not very well, but you don't knock ANY form of cooling when it is that dang hot. We cranked it all the way on for our lunch of pizza and beer - it was less than uncomfortable in the front room with all our friends perched on furniture and boxes, so obviously the AC thingy was doing something! I was petrified that someone would keel over and have a stroke on the front steps, so I tried to steer people to stand in front of the AC unit for at least five minutes with a bottle of ice water whenever possible. It gave me the excuse of standing near the cooler air, too, to try to bring down the swelling that turned my feet into blimps and my fingers in to bratwursts. Not fun.

The crew was all done by mid-afternoon and even volunteered to help us unpack and get settled in. (Did I mention that our friends are ridiculously fabulous? Geesh.) We shooed them out to their air conditioned cars and off to their hopefully cooler homes. And then the nesting bug hit. And I just had to unpack every box in the kitchen. The bug started to subside when my feet started throbbing, but not by much.

Thru all of this, our buddy Joel was tiling our bathroom floor. Inside, in 110 degree heat. What a guy. The floor looks GREAT (oh my gosh, look at those little curved pieces around the tub!) and he will be back tomorrow to grout the tub and floor. Wahoo!

We took our first outdoor shower at the new house tonight - can I just say that this is a PERK of moving into a house without a working bath? A full view of redwoods, stars up above, warm water run thru a hose out the back window... Fabulous. It was so nice to remove an inch-thick layer of sweat buildup at the end of the day.

Matisse did OK with the move, but was really worrying me with her panting and lethargy. Extreme even for a cat. Poor baby, she was so hot on top of the stress of moving to a new place - I can't imagine having a fur coat today. She'll be better off than us in the winter, but for now... no bueno. She plopped herself down on the cool-ish stone hearth (and then kept moving slightly when she over-warmed that spot...) and looked up at us with sad, sad "why are you doing this to me???" eyes. *sniff* I try to be a good cat mommy!

So... we're living in BOXLANDIA for now... in ridiculous heat... in an old house that creaks... without a shower... and it is *awesome.*

(And yes, Matt *is* wearing board shorts in this picture.)

Day Twenty: Meet Your Neighbors...

TileWatch’09 continued today; Dad made great strides and finished the shower tile... AT 8:30 p.m.!!!! He then packed up and went home, much to my mother’s relief. Sometimes the cats just aren’t enough company...

When I stopped in to have lunch with Dad today we discovered a lovely congregation of GINORMOUS ANTS in the garage. Some even had wings! For some reason they absolutely love the quickset and were making a nuisance of themselves in the powder bag. We tried our best to smash them into oblivion (they made large crunching noises... and I was in flip flops.) Matt will do a *wonderful* job taking care of them later. You should see him attack ants – it’s more than a hobby for my husband. It’s a mission!

We’re winding down on the house in preparation for the move this weekend... While we are nowhere NEAR done, the time has come for us to make it happen. Oh Lord.

Day Nineteen: Do we name her Paulina?

Following a crazy work-packed weekend, my dad, Paul, took three days of vacation time to… work on our house?!? Yesterday he started on the subway tile in the bathroom between coats of floor varithane. Can I just say that our floors are AMAZING!?!??!!??! It looks like we had them professionally refinished! Who says you need to spend $2K and stay out of your house for two weeks to have great looking floors? (You just need crazy talented parents who are really good at home repairs/remodels…) I can’t believe Dad is up here for three days.

The tile is coming along, slowly but surely. Dad is a *very* meticulous worker (read: borderline over-the-top-perfectionist… ;o) His mantra is measure three (or four) times, cut once. And his work is GORGEOUS. I’m more of a measure twice, cut once person. Matt is a “you measured?” type – but more often than not is dead on. Darn talented booger. *smooch*

It was extra special to come up to the house on a week day and have lunch with Dad – two days in a row now! I attacked the dead caulking behind the kitchen sink with a vengeance, but still only one third the energy I’m used to being able to expend on repair projects. This remodeling-while-preggo thing is getting old.

Matt came by after work and continued working on the bathroom walls, covering screws with another layer of mudd. There is much debate over how we will finish the walls – I want a smooth wall finish but have been informed that this is beyond the skill/patience level of the workers on hand (mainly Matt and dad.) Ugh. We’d better not have to do the orange peel finish. I hate that. Maybe I’ll grab a palate knife and see what kind of mischief I can get into… Or not.

Day Seventeen: Are we there yet?

Another fun-filled Sunday! Just think.... this time next week we will be waking up for the FIRST TIME in our NEW(ish) HOUSE! Wahoo!

Matt and I rarely get to sleep in together... or have breakfast together... or even just spend time alone together these days! Being an electrician means that his hours lean more towards the first half of the day - as in he starts before most people are awake! So we stole a few minutes of luxurious together time this morning, joking around and mentally preparing to get back to work on our project, er, I mean house. Needless to say, it was quite lovely. Boy do I love that man!

I was treated to a lovely Peet's coffee on the way up and arrived oh-so-ready to keep painting. (Well, actually I was ready for a nap, but that didn't seem to be one of the options available, so painting won out.) It didn't take long for me to realize that I just do not have quite the reach I did, say, six months ago... There seems to be something in the way! It was great when mom and dad showed up after church; the cabinet interiors got taped along the backs and I was able to get two coats of paint applied.

Dad had the enviable task of sorting thru the kitchen window trim pieces and tacking them back up. There is still one piece that we cannot for the life of us figure out... In retrospect, I really should have painted the trim pieces red while they were off... but with half of the strips being good-condition-old-growth-redwood pieces, it was more of a commitment than I was ready to make when we started in on the kitchen painting process. Now that mom has done such a kick-butt job painting the room, the trim looks shabby in comparison. Ah well, an easily remedied situation... but not this week!

Matt and Dad continue to steam ahead in the bathroom, finishing the sheetrock and wonderboard today! Now all is ready for tile... and my too-good-to-be-true father is taking off Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week to tile our bathroom. Holy underpants, Batman!

Mom buzzed around like a cleaning lady on speed today, continuing the floor scrubbing and helping to clear the WayBack of extra tools and garbage. Dad plans on varithaning the floors tomorrow, so Mom had them in eat-off-me-order by nightfall.

I ended up running errands for three hours in the afternoon, searching for semi-gloss floor varithane (HD only had one gallon, OSH had none... what's a girl to do?!?), lighting fixtures, switch plates, wonderboard screws and more. Needless to say, my feet hurt. Quite a bit. Ugh.

We all sat down to our first full home cooked meal *inside* the house, using our scaffolding as a makeshift table and plopped into the four folding chairs that have been our only furniture for the past 16 days. Mom cooked, therefore it was delicious. I must say that I am REALLY looking forward to finally cooking in my own kitchen!

Home to bed, aching and exhausted but thrilled that we are still making good progress. We are behind schedule, of course, but at this point I'm not going to worry about it. I'm too tired to worry. Matt's too tired to worry. Dad's almost too tired to worry. And Mom is a VERY talented worrier, so she can be really tired AND worry enough for all of us. It's a Johnson women trait.

I still need to pack. A lot. Tomorrow. Everything tomorrow.

Day Sixteen: Are we having fun yet?

Today was another ridiculously full Saturday. I don't know how my parents and Matt do it... they are working like crazy people! We will all need naps when this is done... or part done... But HEY! We didn't go to the Depot of Homes today! Woot!!!

Matt and Dad have reached the turning point on the bathroom - from here on out, everything is progress towards a completed, fully remodeled bathroom! (As opposed to demolition of the old one...) We were all blown away by Matt's drywall skills - he measures quick, cuts quick, installs quick... and is RIGHT ON with his calculations and cuts!

My dad is a *very* precise worker... measure ten times, cut once. The results are always impressive (Matt's brother Mike was trying to figure out last weekend if Dad is a contractor in addition to being a chemist, due to his staggering depth of knowledge in all things home repair. Go Dad!) Matt, however, approaches all these projects with the confidence of a tradesman - measure once, cut once, thank you have a nice day. It has been really fun to see the two styles working together - the perfectionist and the professional. They make a great team (and their hilarious banter provides much-needed entertainment for mom and I as the endless paint-o-rama continues...)

Mom painted the kitchen today while I painted the inside of the cabinets. After removing the layers of funky vintage contact paper, it was clear that the shelves needed some love and attention. The layers of paint have helped refresh the kitchen (and helped refinish surfaces that the OCD side of me did NOT want touching anything that might come in contact with our mouths.)

We have decided to varithane the floors to help protect the soft-ish wood against our less-than-gentle lifestyle. Mom bravely tackled the floor-cleaning process on hands and knees with a scrub brush, damp mop and enough pine sol to scald your nose hairs right off. The floors look exponentially better already - can't wait to see what the floor varithane does!

Once all the drywall was up, it was time for Matt's introduction to mudd and tape. Hooboy. He's doing a GREAT job... but the process is less than foolproof. Dad fully admits that this is NOT his area of expertise... but he and Matt are still trying their darnedest to get it right. At one point I peeked in to the bathroom and found dad with his hand on his forehead, bemoaning the fact that this is "the blind leading the blind." Perhaps a bit melodramatic, but it made for a great picture.

No rest for the wicked - we'll be back bright and early tomorrow! (Mainly because everything is going so slow that we're entering the frantic panic phase of pre-move/pre-baby home remodel... WHATEVER. If we need to, we hook a hose up to the utility sink, run it to the back patio and shower outside for a few days.

Longer than a few days? Time to panic.

Day Fifteen: Wait, we're moving? We need to pack up the old house?!?

I was hit today by the sickening realization that we will be MOVING in to the new house next weekend... which means that we will be MOVING EVERY SINGLE LAST BELONGING WE HAVE next weekend.

And I have just started packing... while 34 weeks pregnant... or is it 35? Either way, it is *super* slow-going.

Today I took some time to organize much of the baby stuff that we have been accumulating over the past few months. I washed and folded a sickeningly-adorable pile of newborn clothes that we have been blessed to have handed down from friends ('cause they only wear this size for a minute!) Do you know how TINY newborn socks are?!?! Do you have any idea how bizarre it is to fold postage stamp-sized onesies? (And exciting... we're entering the home stretch!)

Our wonderful friend Jon came over to the new house tonight to help Matt with bathroom demo and framing. It was great to get him out to the house and use his enthusiastic manpower! I gave the boys plenty of room (as the bathroom is pretty darn tiny... particularly once you add in two working stud muffins [I can call your husband a stud muffin, right S?] and power tools.)

The greatest part of Jon's visit was dinner - hell froze over, and we got pizza. Wahoo! Due to Matt's dietary constraints we *almost* NEVER eat pizza... this was such a treat! Dinner was also fantastic because it involved conversation with Jon... He and his wife are two of the most beautifully social people we know. Getting together always means laughter, easy conversation and a reminder that we need to get out more often with awesome people like them!

So... not much of an update on the house, but we're still going strong. Dead on our feet, panicking that we won't be ready in time, dazed by the remodeling process... but still going....

Day Fourteen: (Does he know what he's doing in there?)

Yesterday I spent three hours tangled with the shop vac, trying to suck up all the roof pucky that had rained down over the past week. It was not a pretty sight. I took all the drop cloths out for a good shake over the edge of our new patio and tried to hold my breath as they released clouds of sawdust, dirt, composite roof "sand," leaves and unknown other substances. It felt GREAT to clean up, even just a little bit, as the house was looking pretty wrecked and the sandy junk from the roof had to be no bueno for our soft-ish fir floors. Note to self: never have a roof replaced in an exposed ceiling house when you are living in said house. OK. Got it.

The roof is on and almost finished - they still need to complete a small section on the garage. Apparently there were four roofs on the garage as well - just removing the previous roofing material properly will supposedly help with the slight sag to the roof line over the workshop. Whatever. I'm shocked that the roofers didn't just reframe the whole garage roof without asking and then hand us a bill. (Sorry, still upset.) The final roof does look quite lovely on the house - I'm glad that we went with the hickory color the roofer suggested.

Matt met with the owner of the roofing company this evening; apparently they had a good talk about our concerns and their workmanship. There is no conversation that can fix the problem, but I defer to Matt's judgement and expertise on the house. (But I do have to say, I may be hormonal, but POLKA DOTS?!?! ON OUR CEILING?!?! ARGH.) OK. Moving on.

Danny and Megan came down tonight to see the new casa and lend a helping hand. I worked today and thus wasn't there to greet them graciously from the front porch (apron and pearls optional) but was able to show up with bueno Taqueria food in hand. We had a great time catching up over burritos, sitting in our fabulous flimsy folding chairs outside around a small work table. (I will miss these kinds of moments when we are fully moved in with furniture and other modern conveniences...) I do love how much we laugh when these two are around!

Danny was Matt's best man at our wedding - a total goofball and loveable party person. Those of you who where there might remember his fabulous toast ("Kadoosh!") and his date (my grandmother.) I don't know Danny's entire work history, so when I walked in to find Danny with a skill saw attacking our bathroom floor, I must admit I was slightly alarmed. I pulled Matt off his ladder where he was installing switches in the WayBack to ask, "Does Danny know what he's doing?!?" in my most positive, upbeat, neutral and quiet whisper. Turns out Daniel worked in construction for several years. Whew. My bad. Sorry to ever doubt you dude... I'm just slightly concerned when I see someone with a skil saw in one hand, a beer in the other, coming out of the bathroom to say, "I may have just hit a pipe. There were sparks."

Holy poop. ;o)

(Thanks Danny and Megan - was great to see you, and Danny did a great job removing the old bathroom floor in preparation for this weekend's big bathroom showdown!)