Our Names in the Cement and some others too

Yesterday they poured the cement. We had planned to go put the kids hand prints in the cement and had been advised to try after about 4 hours. Turns out 4 hours is too long and Den was only able to write their names with a nail.

The neighborhood kids fared better. 'Somehow' the neighbor's dog, who is never out of his house w/o a leash got his pawprints (and matching kid-owner footprints) all the way across the cement. Den was livid!

I think they went back there to write their names (a kid from each side of us who are shall we say free-willed) and then the dog got loose and they then tried to scratch out their names, making it worse. Den was able to get them out with a broom, but the neighbor's parents realized how angry Mr. Laid back was, so hopefully the kids will stay out.

That and the contractor said he'll put up an orange fence to keep them out at the end of each day. We of course know people are curious and don't mind having people take a peek, but we don't want anyone to get hurt--and there is a difference between taking a peek and leaving your mark :)

Pouring the cement...

So I'm not really into this kind of thing in the way that some are, but this whole project has been super cool to watch. Today they laid the cement, which involved wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow full.

It took 3 cement truck trips for all the cement they used--1 for the footings and 2 for the surface. If I remember correctly, the trucks held 8 yard each and we used 7 out of the first one and then 4 out of the second.

I love the shawdow of the tree on the cement...

Eddie the Dog and Josie the Cat

I'm sure I've mentioned how Eddie has assigned animals to our family. He very often refers to us as these animals instead of our names so that in public we're having a conversation like this:

Eddie: Where's the sheep?
me: He's at work.
Eddie: Where's the cat?
me: Right here
Eddie: Where's the dog?
me: Right here
Eddie: What's the cow doing?
me: The cow is pushing the cart

Yesterday it rained and rained here, sometimes coming in buckets and other times just drizzle, but ALL DAY. Eddie looked out the back window at the construction site and said something to the effect of: There's a lot of mud down there. Did it rain so that there would be mud and the pigs would come to the mud? Are we going to have pigs come to the mud at our house?

It's the near one-liners like this that crack me up.

The Pursuit of Green

When we renovated our kitchen 3+ years ago, I wanted to use green materials and Den gamely went along. We used Wheatboard cabinets, marmoleum that was given to us by some friends whose contractor ordered too much, energy star applicances, and a countertop that was the greenest we could find at the time.

Now that we are doing this addition, I'm at it again. Now I've roped our contractor into it too. He's been game so far, getting the green plywood that arrived last week. They are storing it at our neighbor's house right now--they are finishing that job up this week and then will be at our site. We didn't even realize it had arrived until we looked over at their house and saw a pile of wood.

Below is the rough footprint, not including the screened porch and grilling deck. No idea what will happen this week, as the foundation is taking a little longer than projected. This builder has a reputation for finishing on time, if not early, so we're not worried. Ask me again in July. The whole project is supposed to be 4 months...

The kids are doing well. They were a hand-full at church, but Josie was hugging Eddie and they seemed to be playing with each other--as Den said, we were watching a car race, waiting for the wreck--or a head to bump or Eddie to decide he'd had enough.

The Recessive Gene

Josie's walking abilities have really flourished in the last couple days. She likes to climb the stairs too and it seems that when she is insistant on climbing the stairs it's because she wants something at the top of the stairs, but today really stunned me.

I have a witness for this (the neighbor's nanny who spends part of just about every day with Josie):

Eddie likes to play tee-ball (see any number of posts for the well-loved Little Tikes set-up). Today the tee was set up in the yard. Josie climbed the front stairs for about the 100th time that day. She picked up the ball and handed it to me and then picked up the bat. I wondered if she just wanted to try putting them in her mouth or just check them out. I set her, the ball, and the bat on the grass.

Josie picked up the ball and tried to place it on the tee. Couldn't quite reach and it fell to the ground. I handed her the ball and she tried again. The third time she somehow managed to get the ball to stay on the tee. She then picked up the bat, swung it at the ball and made contact.

I would have taken pictures, but as this whole thing unfolded, I didn't want to blink for fear I'd miss something. The nanny and I were just astounded, disbelieving we were seeing this.

More pictures and blog later. Tomorrow is one of our big fundraisers for the Soft Play Room.

Recessive gene refers to the fact that clearly this is not something she gets directly from Den or me.

Wed.---Don't blink

Monday they poured the cement. Tues. they filled in with the block wall and then today, they laid out some drains on the inside walls, coated everything with some black stuff, added some thick foam, a 1/2 truck load of gravel (bet that was noisy when poured), and filled it all in.

It sounds like this crew will be around til next Monday or so. I'm not sure exactly what is next, except that they will need to use up a 1/2 truckload of gravel sitting in our driveway and then lay out the cement across the top. Can't wait to write our names in that!



When I first saw this last week, I thought it was related to the plumbing. Then we realized it held our plans. Rather ingenious.

One thing I have learned so far is that I wish we'd picked a couple key pieces first for the bathrooms and then designed around those. As it stands when you think you have 2000 things to chose from, you really only have 2. The other extreme of not realizing there are so many options and then being paralyzed by them is awfully difficult too. Wish there could be more of a happy medium.

The 'O-F-F' button

On a nearly daily basis Eddie asks to call g'parents Wisc. and Ohio. Each time he is finished talking he wants to hang up the phone. Both he and Josie are quite possessive of the phone, which can be fun too. Here they are talking to g'pa Wisc. -- sure looks like Josie is giving him an earful.

I'd like to get one of those video cameras that we can use to talk to g'parents. Besides cheaper, I suspect Eddie would find it great fun. Have to figure out what technology we'd use, there are apparenlty a couple out there.

Tues. in the back yard

We took Eddie for a walk around the back yard while Josie slept. He had a great time and insisted on touching the top of the wall -- all the way around--several times. He liked jumping across the moat they had dug for drainage.

Before you ask, Den surmised that they had cut the blocks to better tie the cement layer in. The workers confirmed that. Guess his 1 masonry class paid off.

hysterics on Tues.

Spell-check says I spelled that title correctly. Josie was cracking up watching Eddie blow on the noisemaker from her first birthday. She was laughing so hard it seemed she almost couldn't breath.

Foundation/Footers

The kids had a rebound on their colds and are sick again/still sick. Ugh. Josie was hoisting her leg up on the couch, trying to climb up. She is entering that stage where she wants to self feed--with a spoon. The next 6 months are going to be messy. Eddie is peeing for jelly beans and ocassionally other candy too. So far he is enjoying the work on the house, although he still says he doesn't want a larger house.

Meanwhile, work on the house continues. Eddie sat out front for a while watching the cement truck. There was a continuous loop of wheelbarrows filled with cement, one person would leave on one side of the house and another would come from the other side. It was fun to watch.

I also took Eddie out back and we stood looking in the trenches. Cookie stood in the corner of the yard, holding her breath that I wouldn't trip and drop Eddie into the cement.
I don't want to know how Den snapped these when he got home from work. Looks like he was hanging out the 2nd story window. It's difficult to get a photo of the whole work area.

The workmen have been super nice and friendly. Things are apparently moving along fine. They have been able to further refine their work schedule, yet they don't know exactly which week they'll come into the basement (it depends on when the formaldehyde-free plywood arrives and there isn't a firm date on that). I'm just happy it won't be before this weekend when we have a fundraiser for the Soft Playroom. It will be either next week or the following week--think jack-hammers and sledge-hammers.

80 -100 degrees

It was glorious 80 degrees today! Both kids took 2 hour naps--at the same time. That hasn't happened in I don't know how long when it hasn't involved a ride in a car--and even then it's been a while.

Besides the addition, we had 2 doctor's visits this week. Wed. for Josie was supposed to be her 1 year apt.--and it was--and will be another post, but she got diagnosed with an ear infectionand had been apparently running a 100 + degree fever. Thurs. was Eddie's turn. Mercifully they had us in and out in 30 min.--I think they felt sorry for me. Eddie had a sinus infection and a 100+ degree fever.

This morning Eddie woke at 4am, just as a flash back to when he was learning to sleep through the night. He had a really bad fever--I couldn't find our broken thermometer, so I can just say really hot. He was wide awake for the day and remained so until a bout 2:30 this afternoon. Now we're the proud owners of not one, but two new thermometers. Oh and a battery powered suctioner. Eddie is afraid of the noise even though it plays music and he's the whole reason I purchased the thing. Oh well. Haven't bought a useless baby gizmo in a while, guess it was time.

Have a nice weekend.

The Soft Playroom

You might have noticed I have a new link added--Support the Soft Playroom. I'm heading up an effort of a bunch of parents to raise $50,000 to install a padded soft playroom. We've raised about $10,000 at this point with a couple more thousand in the hopper. We have a couple fundraisers coming up--one is the performance of a local kid's entertainer and the other one that you should know about is the fun-a-thon on Sunday, May 18. If you are related to Josie and Eddie or have ever hit us up to support your kid's fundraiser (or some other fundraiser), expect a call from us on the 18th. We're having a party where we'll have everyone call people they know to beg for money.

Both Den and I detest this type of thing, but we are soooo close to being able to buy the walls and floors, which is the greatest single part of the expense, that we're willing to bug you. You can also preemptively visit Support the Soft Playroom and make a paypal donation with your credit card. Josie and Eddie will thank you as they run wild in the room later this year. Plus, as Dennis says, the sooner we get this thing built, the sooner he can step down as Treasurer, a role I volunteered him for. We have a team of about 15 parents are tirelessly give of their time (and money).

Wednesday, April 9

From the area nearest in the photo, is our master bath/closet redo/expansion, the family room, then the dining room bump out with screened in porch and grilling deck.
Here is obviously the back of the house, where the porch used to stand. It is as dramatic in person as it appears in the picture. We've saving all those windows.
This here is where our new family room will be. If I had the time, I'd splice the 2 photos together that in essence show the floorplan, dug out with a mini-digger. The hole is about 30 inches deep, or about to the rear-end of one of the workman.

Things are moving quickly at this point, but once they get the framing up--it about another 6 weeks, we fully expect it to slow waaay down. The whole project is supposed to run 4 months and our builder has a reputation for finishing on time, if not early.

Tuesday, April 8

We've told Eddie about the project and he calls it the construction on our house, or the constructing our house. Before it started while we were clearing out the dining room and other parts of the house, he said he didn't want a bigger house.

His friend Lizzie and her family (our neighbors) are getting ready to move back into their house after nearly 7 months of work, so at least he kind of understands that it will be okay.

We are planning only to move out when they jackhammer at the walls of the house. So far the noise has not been bad and the weather has mostly been good enough to be away from the house. Plus, it's been fascinating to watch (even Eddie has enjoyed).

At the end of the day on Tuesday, the porch was completely gone and there was a big flat spot in the backyard. It looked really huge--kind of like a blank slate--hmmm, what else can we do...

Monday, April 7

These guys work 6 days/week from roughly 7am to 3pm. Fortunately on Monday at 7am, the only thing happening was our builder standing in our backyard with a cup of coffee. By quitting time they had cleared about a ton worth of 18 inch square paving tiles, pulled off the roof and part of our porch.

Sunday, April 6

The storage facility where we had rented a unit not only gave you one month for a dollar, but they also gave you the use of a rental truck to move in (how you move out is up to you). Guess it's like Hotel California.

The catch is we had signed up for Saturday, April 5, but they had us down for Sunday. Yikes!

Managed to get in trouble with g'parents Ohio by making them stay too late on Sunday, but we did manage to cram what we needed to into our unit.

Thurs. April 3

Den and I came home from work last Thursday to find this beautiful blue landmark in front of our house. The tractor was not yet there. Guess the addition really was going to happen!

One Year Old!

If you ask Eddie how old he is, he will typically tell you 3. If you ask him about Josie, he will now say 1. Her first birthday came so much faster than his first birthday. I still regret not having a big blow-out party for Eddie and that of course precludes a big party for J's first, but we had a good time with the g'parents, godparent and nanny.



I just have to explain this photo. Eddie and Cookie made the cake. Eddie was DYING to have a piece of the cake, so when we served all the pieces, as he patiently waited, he picked up his fork and slid the remaining half of a cake over to dig in.

Little Bo Peep with her bear.

THREE Years Old!!!

Just realized I'd better post this before Eddie turns 4! G'parents Ohio came out for his birthday and was he ever excited. Despite my best efforts at getting him to have a party, he just wanted a quiet family celebration--with Josephine.

In the last several months he has mellowed significantly over his sister getting into what he perceives to be his 'stuff'. Thank goodness--I was close to the edge on that one. Right now, it's when she tries to take food from his plate, or as today, when she tried to pull his chair out from under him, so she could push the chair across the room.





Eddie has also learned that for now the dining room table is a safe place for him to escape her. Well, mostly. Josie definitely learned the wrapped gifts thing a lot faster than Eddie as she tries to 'help' him unwrap his birthday gifts.










I've got lots more to post, but have been holding onto these photos for a month now and just want to get them up!

One Year Ago on Today's Date...

We welcomed Josephine Lois Jones into the world. Den says because it is leap year, technically she turned one yesterday, but I'm not going to fall into that trap. Today is April 3. I snapped a couple photos this morning and will get some more this evening when she eats the cake that Cookie and Eddie are making for her. Someday I'll post photos again...

Right now, both Eddie and Josie have colds. G'parents Ohio are driving over today and Eddie couldn't be more excited. Josie doesn't yet know what is in store...