Please forgive me

I know I really left you hanging on Tuesday. Came blazing in with the horrors of a broken drain line on the tub, and then ran off with nary an update. I've been busy, ok? REALLY FREAKING busy.

Hmm. So, let's see. Where was I? Where am I? What time is it anyway? I have no idea. I'm kind of awash in a sea of, well, I don't even know what. But I'm awash. And I may soon be able to wash my kids again. If I take them to the neighbor's house.

Anyway, enough of that. When I last left you, I had gotten a plumber over, who promptly ran away, insisting that he couldn't give me an estimate. He had to bring out the field manager because this wasn't your ordinary job. Fine. Whatever. Chicken.

So Wednesday morning, I had a couple of plumbers out to give me estimates and selected a plumber who started the one day job on Thursday. The bottom line was we needed new santees in the bathrooms (yes, plural...our bathrooms butt up against each other, so I had the santee for the masterbath sink exposed), a new connection for the pipe I broke and he was also going to rough in the bathroom for me (completely re-plumb the bathroom...toilet, sink, shower/tub). Fine.

One reason why I chose this plumber is that he didn't say he was going to jack hammer the foundation without even looking. He wanted to see if he could replace the connection without major rework, and he was successful. He cut out vent lines, replaced quite a bit of pipework and had things nearly wrapped up when the first bad thing happened. The drainpipe for the masterbath sink snapped as they tried to make a connection. Cast iron pipe, folks, just snapped in two.

As a result of that little oopsie, we found a crack running down the length of the pipe. We're on a slab foundation, and the drainpipe and its crack, ran straight down into the concrete. Since it was already 4pm, they cleaned up and promised to be back first thing in the morning to saw and jack hammer into the foundation until they had good pipe for the connection. They were pretty sure they would be done no later than 3pm with an 8am start time. Joy. I had to get up early.

So my morning started off painfully early, with the cat beginning her morning meowing an hour and change early. Normally the cat alarm goes off at 6:20. This morning, she went off at 4:54. I should have drop kicked her furry little tail into next week. I was a little miffed. The next thing I heard, was Little Dude chatting away to himself at 6-something. I went out to investigate and found him happily perched on the couch...in soaking wet pajamas. Apparently all this construction threw him off his groove. He peed on the couch. I retrieved a towel, and started sopping things up.

At this point, at 6-something a.m., I should have known it was shaping up to be a not-so-fabulous day. I showered, fed the kids breakfast, and ripped out a few rows of tiles while I waited for the plumbers to show. They arrived at 8:30am. First, they sawed into the foundation around the pipe. Then, the jack hammering began. Oh, my goodness. Next time someone wants to jack hammer in my house, I think I'll sell it and move out. They jack hammered for hours. Then, all the sudden, I hear shouting and one of the guys comes flying out, and shuts off the water to the house. They've hit a water line.

I went in to take a look. The rest of our slab is 4-5 inches of concrete. The first thing I noticed about their hole, is that it's about a foot deep...and still totally encased in concrete. Guess what. The drainpipe for the master bathroom? Is in a footing for our house. Great. Just flipping great. Cue the music. Yeah, that's right, we're going to suffer through many more hours of jack hammering while they try to find the bottom of the concrete, or the bottom of the crack in the pipe.

At this point, I decided that I needed lunch. The kids already had lunch and I was hungry. I came out to the kitchen, got out the bread and peanut butter, then opened the cabinet to get a plate, and the door came off in my hand. GREAT! You know what Mr. Murphy??? Screw you AND the horse you rode in on! What the heck, man? WHY??? So I spent the next hour looking for wood putty to fill the stripped screw holes so I can reattach the cabinet door. Cleaned out a few things in the garage (because I was bored) and found a couple of new movies for the kids. Also located all of the paint I will need for various wall repairs, but that's a different story for a different day. Anyway, at some point, I did get my lunch.

Back to the bathroom situation. Eventually, nearly another foot of concrete later, they finally broke through to dirt. And discover that the crack, goes all the way down to the coupling. They have to excavate more, so they can replace the entire joint. Hoo baby. With their continued digging, they realize that all the dirt under the pipe is soggy. The crack has been there a while, we just hadn't paid the piper yet. We were lucky.

So, fast forward a bit to 6pm. The pipe gets fixed, the hole gets refilled and compacted, the water line is repaired and both lines get sheathed, and the top gets cemented in. Time to set the tub. At this point, I bailed. I went to church to help with a parish retreat. Bottom line was I had no water, I had no toilet, and there was no way I was going to try to make dinner. Going to church was the easy way out. Sure beat trying to drum up something in my kitchen anyway.

I left my number with the guys and they promised to call when they were finished. They thought they would be done by 7 or 7:30. Or? Or, Mr. Murphy will hang around and mess with things to the best of his abilities. They set the tub, and then realized that something was seriously wrong. The sides were wonky. So they pulled the tub (no easy feat), troubleshot the problem and reinstalled the tub with the proper side supports. Then they soldered in the new PosiTemp (single) handle, the spout and shower head. The last thing that needed to be done was running the water to the tub to check the new plumbing for leaks. Turned on the water and...

I heard a freight train rumble through my house. Good lord, I thought the thing was going to come straight through the walls! I traced the noise back...down the hall, out to the garage...it seemed to be coming through the water heater. I had no idea what the heck was happening, but it sure didn't sound good to me. They checked the water pressure in the house, and it was a whopping 113 psi. It's supposed to be right around 65 psi. The regulator blew out the diaphragm, so that now needs to be replaced. That'll be another $275.

And when the regulator blew, it blew the masterbath toilet innards to smithereens. So, now the masterbath toilet has new guts. I finally got the kids in bed around 9:30, which is obscenely late. More than 2 hours past their bed time. I'll pay for it tomorrow, I'm sure. And the plumbers? Got everything together and left my house at 10:15pm...nearly 14 hours after they started this morning. Ho.ly.cow.

So there you have it. That was my Friday. Happy, happy, joy, joy! So much for camping this weekend. I think gas went up another 15 cents today, or something equally stupid. The cheapest gas in the county is $4.07. If you want diesel? Prepare to pay $5.29 a gallon. Uncle. I give already.

Oops.

When starting a big project, I never assume it's going to be as easy as it looks. I also never like to hear "oops" at any time during said big project. *sigh*

Today was a good day, right up until I thought I was finished. That's when it got a little tricky. For what it's worth, a girl like me can pick up a cast iron tub and lug it around. I learned that tubs are actually nailed to the wall, so I pulled each and every one of those nails out. Then I learned that tubs won't move while still puttied to the floor, so I broke the caulking seal. Then I unscrewed the drain couplings underneath the tub and set to work on figuring out how to pull out the tub.

Before long, I realized that I also needed to remove the drain inside the tub in order to detach that part of the tub. Apparently, unscrewing the two pipes (drain pipe and overflow pipe) wasn't enough, and I also had to remove the drain in order to release the tub from the piping below. No problem. I'll get a wrench and fix that. Or not. I stuck a long nose pair of vise grips down the drain to grip the cross pieces in the drain. Oops. Yeah, those were corroded. Wanna guess what they did? Disintegrated. That's right, they ceased to exist. Hmm. So then I used my crowbar, chiseled into the enamel and bent up the edges so I could grip them and remove it that way. No luck. So I sat and thought, and sat and thought some more, and finally decided to see if I could wiggle the pipe out by lifting the tub.

I pushed the tub a bit and was surprised at how easily it moved! I pulled it a bit and voila! The whole thing was free! So I turned it on its side, hefted it up and moved it out to the back patio. That wasn't so bad! In fact, that was amazingly easy. I had called a friend who agreed to come over and assist me with the rip out. He was also going to see if he could bring along his two (young adult) sons to help. Turns out, I had the tub out before they arrived, so I called and let him know of my success. Then I went back to the bathroom to clean up a bit before starting to reinstall new fixtures.

That's when I noticed something wasn't quite right. Turns out that the pipe wasn't up to the task of me taking out the tub. Don't get me wrong, everything up top looked normal. All the plastic drain work was fine...P-trap, drain and everything was just hunky dory. Want to know what broke in two? The cast iron pipe right where it enters the foundation. Doh! Thankfully, I can quickly recognize when I'm out of my league. This is one of those times. I called a professional. Actually, I called two, because the first guy I talked to sounded scared. I decided that maybe this was a big job for a really big company, not just your local plumber dude.

I think this is going to involve tearing up part of our foundation and replacing original cast iron piping. Or worse...the whole thing. I think this is bigger than our economic stimulus check. All because I could no longer tighten a valve tight enough to turn off the water. Such is life.

What a difference a day makes

Today is day 3 of my bathroom project. While it may not look vastly different, I can assure you, a great deal of work was completed today.

I completed the drywall and tile rip out, pulled all the extraneous nails, pulled the toilet and removed all the rubble. All in all, not a terribly demanding day, but a good solid four hours of work, nonetheless.

Tomorrow I'll tackle removing the tub and then the tile floor. Once that is complete, I'll rewire that bathroom and the master bathroom (they share a wall and all the wiring is exposed for the master bath...might as well do it while I can...you know, to ground the gfci plugs...), install the new tub and start installing the new drywall. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Might take me a few days...especially since I'm going to run away and go camping with the kids this weekend. Never a dull moment, is there?

Bathroom renovation, day 2

So yesterday I had a wild hair, bought enough materials to cause the Lizard to contemplate working overtime, and began gutting the kids' bathroom. Here's what it looks like tonight:

Two things: yes, our bathroom is small and yes, that is the bathtub along the back wall. It's just buried in dry wall and tile that once graced the walls.

Today I learned that quarter turn valves aren't as infallible as they claim. Two of the three valves I installed a mere 9 years ago leak more than just a little bit. I turned off the water to the toilet and flushed as I prepared to pull it out. I was stunned to hear the water running when the valve was turned off. Needless to say, I had to secure water to the whole house in order to cap the valve. Note to self: buy new valves before reinstalling sink and toilet.

Stimulating the economy

The tub faucet leaks. I stripped the handle trying to tighten it down. I swapped out handles with the tub fill/shower diverter handle, so I can at least turn on the cold water. Just can't take it off shower mode without pliers for the moment.

The base cabinet for the sink is water damaged 4 inches up due to toilet stoppages. I'm tired of putting bandaids on every little thing in there to nurse it along. So I'm going for the big rip out. I'm close enough to done with school for the year to call it a day, so this morning, we (me, myself and I and the 4 kids) went shopping for a few items. Here's what we bought:

Ceramic tile
spacers
grout
adhesive
adhesive trowel
tile cutter
grout sealant/applicator
grout sponges
pedestal sink/pedestal
bathtub
tub faucet
tub surround
bathroom fan

I think that's it for now. Later I need to go back and buy the toilet, dry wall, mud, tape, texture and paint for the walls. I'm ok hauling the tub and surround in by myself, but I think I'll wait for help to do the drywall. Those buggers are unwieldy. :o) I guess I also need to get some copper pipe to raise the height of the shower head. As it currently stands, it's too short for me, and I'm short. Really short.

So there you go. I'm spending our economic stimulus check, just doing my part in stimulating the economy.

What do you hear on a typical day?

In the past, I've highlighted a few choice statements from the kids. This morning, they're in rare form. Here's a few of the statements I've heard so far:

"Be careful with my patience. I'm running out."
~ Mighty Man

"If you don't let go of that, I'll lick you 59 million times."
~ Little Miss

"Maybe I should put on my penis protector."
~ Monkey Boy

"Aw, man. Hey mommy, our clouds came back."
~ Mighty Man

How much more of this do you think I can handle? I guess time will tell. In the meanwhile, I'm praying that those clouds that just came back aren't bringing more rain. As if we need any more. I don't think I need to water the lawn for a week or so with everything that has fallen in the last 3 days. It's been interesting to swing from 100+ temperatures to the 60's all in the span of a couple of days. We've done that twice in the last couple of weeks. It's pretty crazy!

Why it was a long day.

I mentioned that Wednesday was a long day. It was, in so many ways. I was so ready to throw a white flag up and call it a day.

My day started hours earlier than it should have. 6am, is way too early, in my book. I like 7:30 or 8 much better, thank you very much. And I don't care for crises quite so early, either. I don't mind something cropping up after you've had a chance to wake up and get going, but to wake up to the crisis is something else entirely.

So, here was my day:

6am wake up
6:05 start the day
6:20 start first laundry
7 am get kids dressed
7:15 breakfast, start manual watering of front yard (the valves crapped out on the automatic sprinklers and I haven't had a chance to get to Home Depot for replacements and the Lizard is away on business)
7:20 shower
7:45 feed the critters down the street
8:10 start second laundry
8:20 have breakfast
8:45 start packing up for piano lessons
9:15 off to piano lessons
10:35 off to computer based testing for Little Miss
12:30 off to Burger King for lunch
1 pm other errands
2 pm stop by the credit union to deposit a check (I received a check for the repairs I had done to my van after being hit last week...)
2:17 discover keys are locked in van and call AAA
2:48 AAA hero comes and rescues me and 4 kids who are restless
3 pm home again

I also learned today that my college roommate of two years passed away yesterday. That hit me hard. Terribly hard. I'm so incredibly sad. She had her whole life ahead of her. She did everything with gusto. And now she's gone. There are so many unanswered questions burning in my mind. I'll probably never know the answers to most. I suppose that's just the way it is.

"Mommy?"

My eyes flew open this morning to the sound of Little Miss whispering my name. In case you're wondering, in my experience, it's never a good thing to awaken to that word whispered in your face at oh-dark-thirty. Never.

"Mommy? Little Dude stinks. He pooped and he knows it because he's hiding it under his blanket and is laughing. And I can't get back to sleep because my room stinks. I don't think it's very funny at all."

Now, call me crazy, but I'm not all that keen about "pooped," "blanket" and "laughing" being used all in one sentence. Especially not at 6am before I've had a good stretch and enough time for my brain to awaken from its slumber. That's just wrong on so many levels.

I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the fact that Little Miss was standing at the side of my bed staring at me. Maybe I could wake up again later and it would have been a dream. "Mommy?" She was still there. "My bedroom stinks and I can't sleep." Once again, reality was shoved in my face. I couldn't ignore it. I heaved a big sigh, pushed back my covers and rubbed my eyes. We traded places and I shuffled off to assess the situation while she snuggled in to my nice, warm bed.

The first thing I noticed was the open bathroom door, the empty spindle of toilet paper and a toilet bowl full of paper. I decided to risk it and flush. Thankfully, it all went down without the need to plunge. The second thing I noticed was an open bedroom door and a missing Mighty Man. I hunted him down and sent him back to bed. Now all I had left was the next bedroom: the one with the door closed and light escaping around the edges. The one from which a distinct odor was wafting. I took a deep breath and then went in.

On many occasions, I've noted that Little Dude not only resembles Little Miss, but acts just like her. He's highly verbal and very easy to understand, just like she was. He potty trained himself, just like she did, and at the same age. There are many other similarities, but this morning, he took it one step farther...just like his sister. He painted with poop. Joy. Obviously I was mistaken in my belief that only our little angel of a girl would have the creative impetus to paint with poop. I stand corrected.

So this morning at 6am, I gingerly extracted Little Dude's bottomless self from his bed and put him in the bathtub. I then began to assess the damage. The large stuffed dog had nails painted on its paws. I hauled it off to the washer and started my first wash of the day. I returned with a container of disinfecting wipes and contemplated where I should begin. I stripped his bed, turned on the fan and opened the window. Then I scrubbed walls and determined that the carpet could wait. There were several little footprints, but not enough for me to feel the need to break out the steam cleaner at 6:15. I headed to the bathroom to discover Little Dude had continued his painting efforts. Thankfully, it was all contained in the tub.

One quick bath later, and I emerged to find that all 3 older kids were gathered on the couch for an early morning showing of Brother Bear. Well, why not. I'm not in the mood to fight the early rising or the tears I'm sure to experience today as a result of everyone being up so early. I did eventually get the carpet cleaned...right before I put the kids down to bed. We had such a full day today, that was my first chance to get it clean. It's been a long day.

Are you a pussy that just never gets any attention?

And no, this is not a psa (public service announcement) about hooha's. Call me juvenile, but it always cracks me up when I hear words such as these uttered from my children.

The situation was this: we have a cat. One who meows. A lot. Incessantly at times. We love this cat dearly, but man, can she ever get loud. Like when the children are outside. Or when we're all asleep. Well, today, she was just wandering around, meowing her ever loving head off. Little Miss sat down next to her, scratched under her chin, and said compassionately, "Are you a pussy that just never gets any attention?"

So glad I wasn't drinking anything. Or eating anything. That wouldn't have been pretty. Kind of like last night at dinner. Last night I had a spaghetti shower courtesy of Mighty Man. Ew!

Why I never get anything done

I started out today thinking I needed to plant my rose cuttings so they don't die. They're starting to show their age in the water, and they definitely need to be put in dirt. So from the kitchen (where the rose cuttings are), I went to the bathroom...I know, not the most direct route to outside, but I'll get there, I promise. While in the bathroom, my daughter came in to report that her second youngest brother was digging a hole in the back yard to go poop in.

So I yelled out the window for Might Man to come inside to put away his shoes. He did. He put away his Crocs and went back to digging a latrine hole. So I went back to my bedroom window and asked that he come inside and put away his church shoes, which were in his bedroom. That would give me an opportunity to talk him out of his outdoor potty mission. While waiting, I decided to sort some laundry since I'm sure that taking two days off from it has given me enough for three loads. So I sort some laundry, clean up the blue bedroom, clear out all of their laundry, and head to the pink bedroom to clean it up and clear out laundry. Discover that I should probably change Little Dude's sheets. He didn't have an accident, I'm sure, but they smell...funky. So back to my bedroom I go with laundry in hand (haven't touched the bed yet) to get new sheets and a water proof pad (the clean ones are still on my bedroom floor from the last round).

Instead of doing that, I finish sorting my laundry, have a talk with MM who agrees that we only go potty in the toilet and not outside, and then head to the garage with my laundry basket. Start a dark load. Come back into the kitchen and look around blankly. Realize that I don't have my menu on the fridge, so back out to the car to find the list. Get my list and cell phone and realize that the Lizard has text messaged me about my earlier report of being backed into and needing a new bumper. Go back out to take a couple of pictures of that.

Back to the kitchen. Clean off the counters a bit, lay out bread for the kid's lunch. Remember that I need to bring lemonade to tonight's meeting. Find the container, figure out how much mix, add water and stir. Then remember to ask if I need to bring cups. Get on the computer. Also remember that I have some pictures of my finished front yard, some Mother's Day pictures, and some pictures of a really cool beetle that Mighty Man found. Download pictures and write a blog post.

See why I never get anything done? Right now I have a load in the washing machine, clean sheets and pad in my bedroom, one bed that needs to be changed, bread on plates and jam out (but not the peanut butter or honey), lemonade made, but not in the refrigerator, my camera is connected to my computer but not turned on, and the kids are still outside, hungry but quite content to dig in the dirt. All because I wanted to plant some rose cuttings. Life is complicated!

Random stuff

Just because I'm feeling the need to keep blogging, so I don't get out of the habit, I'll update you on a few things around here.

First off, Mighty Man lost his fourth tooth. That's right. He's 4 years old and has already lost 4 teeth. He's just fast like that. And he rides a two wheeler...no training wheels (he started that last November). You know how some kids are "a really young 5" or "a really old 5" when they start Kindergarten? Well, MM is on the old side of that scale. He has a passion for learning things and learning them well and early. Or works on his teeth until they fall out. Ironically, of the four children, he's the only one who doesn't believe in the Tooth Fairy. He's certain that the Lizard is the Tooth Fairy. Or I am. Don't ask why, because I cannot answer that question for you! He's a smart little cookie.

Second, last weekend (yes, it was a busy weekend!), Little Miss and Monkey Boy had a piano recital. Once I figure out how to post those videos, I'll do it. This was MB's first, and boy howdy, was he ever proud of himself! LM played "Fur Elise" and the "Star Wars" Theme and MB played "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and "My Invention." It was great to see them playing on a grand piano!

And last but not least, I've been puttering around in our front yard lately. First, I weeded the entire parkway and remulched that. Did I mention that I'm so glad the kids will weed large expanses of flower beds for 50 cents apiece? Because I really am! They do a great job! And they're cheap too. Did I mention they're cheap? :o)

With all of their help, I was able to move on to the flower beds in the front yard. I now have 5 new rose bushes and a full complement of petunias out front. Some of the petunias are left over from last year, and are just prolific! I love how they bloom for me all year round. I think that's one reason why I like living here...I have roses year round, petunias year round, and never any snow! In any case, here are a few pictures from my front yard. These are all "before" pictures, so you won't get the full effect of the mulching and beautification that has taken place in the last two weeks, but they'll do for now!

This is my Disneyland Rose (my favorite):

Opening Night:

Voodoo:

Disneyland (again):

Mr. Lincoln:

Fragrant Wave:

Locks of Love

If you've never heard of Locks of Love, be sure to check out their website. A couple of years ago, I whacked my hair from mid back length to super short (and super easy to care for). Apparently, this made an impression upon our daughter. She tried to grow it out then, but finally begged me to cut it for the summer. That was two years ago. This time, she stuck with it, and grew it until she had more than enough. So this weekend, we went to get her hair cut for Locks of Love.

Here she is before. I think she looks a bit like Cousin It. She really hated brushing all that hair every day. Because I'm a mean mom and make her do it.

Then she sat down, got her hair braided and whacked off!

And here she is, sporting her new 'do:

Oh, and then there was one other thing we did on Saturday...she got her ears pierced!

Our Little Miss is growing up right before our eyes. And I'm ok with that. It seems each stage brings a new excitement to our lives.

There comes a time...

There comes a time in life, when you feel the need to slow down. To take a break and catch your breath. This is one of those times. I think I deserve a break! I did eight or nine laundries today. I taught Little Miss about the industrial revolution and then how to solve for x. She's 8 and we're already moving on to algebraic equations...which I find to be so cool! I also spent some time excavating what used to be our school table, before I had 4 kids who all wanted to do school at once.

I've still got a million things I feel like I should do. I need to plant the poor tomato plant that is slowly wilting on my back patio. I need to finish up the front yard...my roses are flourishing and my petunias are planted, but alas, the bags of mulch are still waiting to be spread. I have window planters ready for radishes to be started. I have rose cuttings that are budding on my kitchen counter. Those need to hit the dirt very soon. I also have grape bushes running amok in the back yard that need to be trimmed back. And I have seeds for a little herb garden...good thing we are currently studying plants and whatnot!

I have the Himalayas of laundry beat back (for the moment...see above note about laundry), and two of the 5 beds have been changed for the week. All the laundry has been folded and put away, and the dishes are all done (although not by my hand today...thank you my hubby in shining armor!). And the cat has been fed...even though she's still meowing about starving. Little Miss has recently gained some new responsibilities.

Which reminds me. This weekend our very own little girl decided to donate her hair to Locks of Love. It was so amazing to see her eager desire to help someone else. She has such a pure heart. I'll try to get to some before and after pictures later. For now, that's it...I'm taking a break now. I'm trying to break myself in easy you know. :o)