Red Tagged

For the past several days we have been without hot water.  Why, you ask?  Well, we were red tagged, or at least our hot water tank was:

Red.  And tagged.  You're it.

And that "WARNING: Appliance Shut-off Notice"
is so conveniently tagged onto our hot water
heater.  #lovely

You see, we received a notice in the mail to have a normal inspection for our gas lines.  This is common every year or so, so we scheduled an inspector to come out and review.  Unfortunately, when the inspector came out this past Tuesday, he found a small gas leak outside.  He quickly repaired the leak but noted that our hot water tank was not venting properly, so he stuck this big ole red tag on it and turned it off.  That meant we had enough hot water to use for Kate's bath that night and it was going to slowly and surely get colder from there.

That was four days ago.

We've called several different people to address this venting issue.  It is also fourth of July weekend, so a holiday weekend.  The soonest we've been told that we can fix this is next Thursday...

That will be a week and a half without hot water.  #pleasedontsaythatisso

In the meantime, Kate and I have managed to bathe ourselves in a luke warm tub.  If I fill the tub about 6" with the normal non-heated water that is coming out of our faucet and boil three-ish pots of water on the stove, then combine the two, we've got luke warm water.

These are the three biggest pots we own.  And you can only carry
one up the steps at a time.  #obviously  #exercisingtoo

It gets cold fast and it's not the most convenient thing to do when you're nine months pregnant but it's better than nothing.  Brian has braved a cold shower each morning.  I am pretty certain if I try such a thing I will go into labor.  It's take your breath away cold right now.

Over the past four days, we've really been reminded to not take our hot water for granted.  There are so many places that do not have hot water, or even clean water, and we are reminded that this a luxury and a privilege that we are blessed to have.

At this point, the forecasted date that we have scheduled to remedy this is Thursday of next week, only six days away.  There is a possibility that it will be Tuesday but we will have to wait until Monday to find out.

The good news is we aren't wasting tons of water right now and we are all still clean and healthy.  That is what really matters.  Here's to a happy fourth and a hopeful next week!  Stay clean!


UPDATE:
Fortunately we were able to get a new hot water tank and have the chimney guy come out on Tuesday to fix the venting issue so we were back in business with hot water that night.  It has been wonderful to shower and bathe without having to boil water on the stove.  #wearespoiled  #andgrateful  #thankyou

All that mess is from...

...this hole in the wall that is going to vent our
hot water tank better.

That long, flexible tubing is going all the way down the chimney.

There he goes!

And there it goes!  At least it was a nice day!

Murphy's Law would call for something like this to happen when we could be going into labor any day now!  #thanksmurph

H is for Hendricks

A is for AMAZING because this is no small feat.
B is for BUSTED because we've watched this feat repeat.
C is for CRIB that Kate continues to climb out of.
D is for DOG who is unsure of this new love.
E is for EXCITING because this new chapter will start.
F is for FRIGHTENING because our little Kate is smart.
G is for GOODNESS because we didn't expect this so soon.
H is for HENDRICKS which is how we sleep in our room.
I is for IKEA - a sooner trip than planned.
J is for JUMP which clearly won't be banned.
K is for KATE who is the culprit of the crime.
L is for LITTLE because she is still so this time.
M is for MOMENTS because these things keep us on our toes.
N is for NIGHTTIME when this situation first arose.
O is for OPPOSITION because Kate knows what she would like.
P is for PERSISTENT because she's a persistent little tyke.
Q is for QUIET which we are missing come midnight.
R is for REALLY?! We've lost our bed outright.
S is for SILLY because that is what Kate thinks.
T is for TOTALLY GIRL because her only request was pinks.
U is for UPSTAIRS because it is the location of this concern.
V is for VICTIMS for Brian and I toss and turn.
W is for WONDER how long this will take undoing.
X is for e-XTREME we imagine the amount of times we'll be pursuing.
Y is for YAWN which we all do the next day.
Z is for ZOO which describes our bed today.

Need a further explanation?!

Last Saturday Kate decided to climb out of her crib.  She does so very cautiously and elegantly.  This we did not expect at all and while we had talked about getting a big girl bed soon, it was just that - soon.  On our radar...but not this coming weekend.  Plans have quickly changed.

We sit with Kate until she falls asleep, place her in her crib, and wait with baited breath.  Every night since Saturday she has woken up in the middle of the night and climbed into bed with Brian, Jack, and me.  If Brian and I are sleeping vertically, she tends to complete our 'H' for Hendricks by sleeping horizontally in between us.  This has led to some less than stellar sleeping conditions and while it is wonderful to wake up cuddling next to your little girl, I am terrified of the difficulties we are going to face trying to undo allowing this to happen.

At the same time we don't want Kate climbing out of her crib in the middle of the night, even though she does possess very solid climbing skills.  (Our teachers at Kate's school have also told us this based on how many times she climbs up the pile of cots...)

We have scheduled a trip to Ikea on Firday.  Brian will be leaving work early to pick up a new bedroom set and we'll get it put together on Saturday.  We've talked to Kate about getting a new bed and told her it would be white.  Her only request thus far has been, "pink".  Bless her dear little heart.  We will make her bed pink.

C is for CURVEBALLS.  P is for PARENTING.  H is for HAND-IN-HAND.

E is for ENOUGH SAID.

New Loo

Well, folks, we've decided to start our very first home improvement project this year: our upstairs bathroom!

Our upstairs bathroom is the one and only full bath in our house.  It is used daily, but it is a bit (read: extremely) outdated.  The color (sea foam green), the fixtures (circa when the house was built it seems), the overall feel (just not our style) led us to tackle this next project.  It has been on the to-do list since we moved in, and we are so, so excited to begin!

We will be transforming this old school bath to a new age spa bath.  We will have a GFI electric outlet (no, we don't currently have an outlet in our bathroom), we will have more subdued colors, we will raise the roof (well, ceiling), and we will make it our own!

It's going to be hard to leave this room once we are done!  As usual, we'll try to update daily on our Bathroom Renovation picasa web album link, so check back if you'd like to see our progress!

Demo begins tomorrow!

So long, sea foam!

Hello, spa!

Light Bright

Let me tell you about my husband, Brian.  He is IMPOSSIBLE to buy for.  He had two items on his Christmas list this year and two weeks before Christmas he bought both of those items for himself.  I had no comment.

I rack my brain each and every birthday, Christmas, holiday that involves a gift to try to come up with something that I think he will love, and each and every birthday, Christmas, holiday that involves a gift, I end up scrambling.

It was no different this year, but in the wee days before Christmas, I had an ingenious idea: exterior lighting!

(Brian talked about adding lights to the house multiple times, so why not surprise him and get it done?!)

I set up an appointment with a local lighting company to place some faux lighting in the areas that we would have lights so that we could present it to Brian for his Christmas present.  Once Brian figured out where exactly he would like his lights, we could go ahead with the plan and get them installed.

Shortly before Christmas, this faux lighting was set up while we were out.  We got back home and were busy getting settled and having dinner when there was a knock at the door.  I looked slyly at Brian and said, "Hmm...I wonder who that is?!"  He was immediately curious...and confused.

He looked at me.

I looked at him.

He looked at the door.

I said, "Merry Christmas!", and he was even more confused.  (I learned that night that Brian doesn't love surprises.)  Our outdoor lighting expert answered the door with a Safari Zoo wind breaker on.  I also learned (later) that Brian thought that I set up some sort of over-the-top Christmas light display on our house for him.  Oh, Brian!

Our lighting expert, Matt, had us walk to the middle of the yard.  When he plugged the lights in, I explained to Brian what was going on.  The house was uplit to perfection, and this was his Christmas present.

It took him a little while to comprehend, and he was very concerned that this little stunt I had just pulled had already been installed (read: expensive and permanent).  I assured him it wasn't and let him know that we could decide whether or not to go through with it, but I had absolutely exhausted all other Christmas present avenues and time was-a-tickin'!

We decided together that the exterior lighting would be our Christmas present to ourselves.  See our lighting debut below:

BEFORE: No lights.

AFTER: LIGHTS!

What a merry and bright Christmas it was!  And, for your viewing pleasure, watch our light transformation unfold here!

The Camp Out Has Ended

Remember back, oh, seven weeks ago when we sold our couch and bought another but were given 8-10 weeks for delivery of said new one?!

Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, we are happy to inform you that our new couch was delivered today, via delivery truck, a week earlier than expected, and we couldn't be happier with the outcome:

We love it!

Our "camp out" has officially ended.  We are back to living a civilized, modern life...for now!

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

How does your garden grow?

With silverbells and cockleshells

And pretty maids all in a row.

Brian and E, quite contrary

How does your garden grow?

With cilantro and tomatoes

And zucchinis all in a row!

Aside from the cucumber, our stash of homegrown veggies
is increasing tremendously, and they are delish!

A Package Deal

With the decision to renovate the sunroom and turn it into Brian's office, we negotiated the renovation of our spare room a.k.a. Bun's room a.k.a. the ballet room a.k.a. the future nursery for our little girl.

There's not a ton that needs to be done to the room, but there is more than Brian or I want to take on (or know how to take on), so we left it up to the professionals.  We will be removing the mirrors, repairing the little bit of water damage, painting, and getting the room ready to bring our sweet baby girl home!  We've wanted to remove the mirrors in that room and paint since we moved in, and this is the perfect opportunity to do so.

Bun's temporary residence will be in the basement, but he'll probably move to the other spare room once the office is finished.  Jack and I miss him being two floors away.  (I don't know that Brian necessarily "misses" Bun, but I guess I couldn't say that he doesn't miss Bun either.  I suppose he is probably indifferent about Bun's living quarters!)

Anywho, we have begun the transformation from our spare room to the nursery.  We will be updating our photos just like we have been with the sunroom.  You can check them out by clicking on the image below.


Jack and I prepare to move Bunny-Boo to the basement.

In just a few short days, we will be well on our way to a finished nursery!

The Fruits of Our Labor

Today I picked the largest zucchini ever from our garden!  This is our very first crop!

Holy zucchini!!

And our watermelons are growing like crazy!

Our little sugar baby!

We actually have three watermelons growing!

Can you spot two of them??

And tons of tomatoes!  None are ripe yet, but they are all forming on our tomato plants.  We expect they'll probably all become ripe at the same time and we'll have 47 tomatoes to eat, but we won't be complaining!  We are just so excited to be enjoying our homegrown veggies!

Camping Out

Remember how we bought a new couch, oh, about seven months ago??  Well, that said couch was purchased, loaded into another vehicle, and has now made itself home in someone else's home.

We decided it wasn't the right fit for us - especially when we found a couch that we liked a million times better when we were looking for a chair for our little bambino's room.

So, we (and when I say 'we' I mean 'Brian') sold our couch and purchased our new couch the next day.  The reason we hadn't purchased the newbie before we sold our oldie was because a.) we weren't sure if we would be able to sell our couch for a reasonable transaction to make sense buying a new one only seven months later, and b.) we weren't entirely sure what we were going to do with two couches in the living room if, for some reason, we couldn't sell the original one we had.

(Yes, some may diagnose us as clinically insane.)

Fortunately, the stars aligned and we had a buyer who was interested at the pricing we needed for this whole deal to make sense.  And that's why we no longer have a couch.

Current living quarters.

The funny thing about this whole situation is that the couch that we purchased takes 8-10 weeks to ship.  The other funny thing is we knew that going into this!  Therefore, until sometime mid-September we will be camping out Walden style in our living room - picnics, lawn chairs, loungin' on pillows!

Our current camp set up.

And here is what we are waiting on:

Pregnant lady with the flat expression
not included.

Don't you just love it?!  We do!  And I think camping out for the next 8-10 weeks is going to be a blast!  Now, if only we could have a little campfire in the middle of our living room...

Our Little Garden

Just over a month ago, Brian, Bun, Jack and I decided that we would plant a little garden this year.  We have a small concrete area in our backyard that was once a koi pond that is a perfect spot for a garden.  Initially, it was very weedy, but we weeded it, [hand] tilled it up a bit, bought some plants, planted them, and watered them daily.  We were slightly worried about what would happen to our plants while we were on our beach vacation, but they prospered in the heat and we came back with a garden full of bushy, green plants...and weeds.

Today we were weeding our garden a bit and noticed that we actually have watermelons, tomatoes, and green peppers growing!!!  This is so exciting, folks!  We had no clue what would happen to our plants or if we would even be able to manage a garden.  We knew that tomatoes and green peppers were easy to grow, but to actually see little watermelons forming on our vine is so gratifying!

It turns out we do have green thumbs!  And we cannot wait to reap the benefits of having a lovely little garden in our very own backyard!

Our little garden!

Our Next Project

After much discussion and deliberation, we have decided to complete our sunroom!  (We do not take home projects lightly!)  When we moved in to our house in November of 2010, the sunroom had a nice start to it, but it definitely needed a bit of rehab.  We haven't really used the room a ton since we moved in - thinking that we could easily do just a few minor things to get this room in tip top shape and then go from there.

Our house has three bedrooms.  We currently have one bedroom as our master bedroom, one bedroom as a spare bedroom (Bun's room), and one bedroom as our (mostly Brian's) office.  We could easily store our spare room in our partly finished basement, keep our master bedroom where it is, and keep our office where it is and make room for our wee one in the old spare room.  But we decided it would be really nice to be able to keep a spare room, at least for now, so we are finishing off the sunroom to make it a four season room and will be moving our office down there.  SO, the master will stay as the master, the spare will soon become our sweet baby's room, the current office will be the new spare room, and the sunroom will be the new office.  Just makin' a little room for baby!

Fortunately, with the sunroom renovation we will also be doing a bit of renovating on our bambino's room.  I hate to break it to all of you but the ballet mirrors are coming down...we will post photos of that room once we start the rehab.  For now, we will continue to update our sunroom project photos daily with all of our progress.

You can start by checking out our before photos and our progress over the first two days of work!  Click here for our current updates.

We are very excited about our upcoming additions!  (Sunroom and Baby, that is - not necessarily in that order!)

Gangsta Tom Up in Da Hizzouse!

Remember Gangsta Tom?!  He was the one that was wearing the hat backwards when we had our hot dog/canoeing/family picnic extravaganza weekend?!

Gangsta Tom.  (We may or may not have
twisted his arm to take this photo.)



He is also the one that built our fabulous cupcake stand, from scratch, AND helped us put up our storm door AND has voluntarily helped us with other multiple handy things around the house and in life.  He is a master carpenter, and, literally, is able to make any idea that you can conceive come to fruition.  He is that amazing!  He gives Geppetto a serious run for his woodworking money, and today we had the pleasure of helping watching Gangsta Tom create some masterpieces around the crib!

First, Tom got started on our storage shelves in the basement, then he swapped our dryer door so it would be more accessible from the washer (I didn’t even know this was possible – I thought you had to completely swap the dryer and the washer), then he built two shelves in our garage, AND, finally, he hung our bikes on four snazzy bike hooks! And this was all done in ONE day! He is a trooper, I tell ya!

We are so thankful that Gangsta Tom stopped by with his bad self and hooked our house up.  We are, once again, amazed at his mad skillz and are very appreciative of all the hard work and effort that he put into helping us make a little more room for baby and organizing our otherwise chaotic basement!

Click here to see more of Gangsta Tom's masterpiece!

Thank you, Tom!  Thank you!  Thank you!  THANK YOU!

(PS: Tom doesn't typically go by 'Gangsta' Tom, but he is referred to as such multiple times in this post.  If you recognize the person you are viewing in the photos, but find that you have never known him as 'Gangsta' Tom, please don't be alarmed.  'Gangsta' Tom also goes by Tom...and will continue to do so.)

First Mow!

Believe it or not, Brian mowed our lawn for the first time this year today!  With the above average (read: amazing) temperatures that we've been having and the additional rain, our lawn decided to start growing fast!

The casa!

We think Spring is here, but now we're wondering what all these high temps mean for summer?!  I suppose we'll worry about that when it gets here.  For now, we are thoroughly enjoying having the windows open and the sun shining!

The Stockade Stands!

Our fence is completely built, and we couldn't be happier with the outcome!  Our fence masters really did a superior job!  The construction is sturdy, the design is modern, and our yard looks massive!  In addition, the guys who built our fence did a great job at cleaning up of all the weeds and junk trees that were along the pre-existing fence line.  Now, we have a completely blank slate to start with our master landscape plans! 

Without further ado, check out our new fence here!

(Note, we would just like to state for the record that we did not sharpen the tops of our fence as in a typical stockade.)

Let the Clearing Begin!

Half of our reasoning to put a fence up was to get rid of all the weedy trees that surrounded our lot.  Today, we saw a lot of said trees removed.

And it already looks incredible!  We are so happy with the decision to put a fence up, and we are so fortunate that we've had such a mild winter that we were able to start so early in the season!

Check out the latest and greatest by clicking on the photo below:

Fort Hendricks

Any guesses as to what these are!?

Ladies and Gentlemen, we would like to introduce to you our next home improvement project: we are installing a fence in our backyard!  And those wooden thingamabobs taking over our nook table are the fence post caps!

We are extremely excited to take on a mini project.  (I say "mini" not because it isn't grandiose in it's nature, but because it probably will only take the better part of a week, and then we will be done!)  Brian and I debated about putting a fence up last year, but it obviously wasn't at the forefront of either of our radars, so we just held off.

When a bunch of our huge trees were removed at the end of last year from the utility company, the fence subject popped back up, and this time it stayed in the foreground.  (I would just like to state for the record that we are not trying to seclude ourselves from our neighbors.  We are just trying to create a tranquil oasis in our backyard.)

We are both very excited for the new fence!  Our highered help (aka "fence masters") will be here to start on Tuesday!  Until then, check out our yard before the installation of our fence!

Spring Mix (Not Salad)

Last Fall I planted a few groups of purple and yellow crocuses.  They are our first bulbs to bloom this season, and they are so dainty and pretty!  There are bright yellows, light yellows, bright purples, and light purples, and together they make a perfect Spring mix!

I know they're hard to see but you'll have to trust
my "perfect Spring mix" judgement.

So dainty!

And so pretty!

Spring is coming!

Couch Surfing

Well, we've started the new year off with a bit of rehab on the ol' crib.  First, we were able to sell our old couches on Craigslist and put the money (in addition to a small bounty of Christmas cash) toward a brand spankin' new couch!  We are ecstatic with the decision to upgrade and Jack has many a new "spots" that he has already called his own!

Out with the old...

...Awaiting the shipment...

...And in with the new!!!

We also upgraded our foyer light (thank you for the help, Tom!) and our garage light to lights a bit closer to the twenty first century:

FOYER LIGHT

Circa early 1900's...in our opinion...

Circa early 2000's!

GARAGE LIGHT

Circa early 1900's...

Circa mid 1900's!

Both of these lights were on the 'to do' list when we moved in and now they are officially done.  I know Brian is happy about that and if he is happy, then Bun, Jack, and I are happy too!

Painting of the Loo

(Not to be confused with Taming of the Shrew.)

When Brian and I moved into our house, the entire house was painted in a sunny, neutral, soft yellow color.  Since then, we have had the kitchen, downstairs bathroom, and living room painted.  And, since we both had a couple of extra days off for the new year, we decided that we would paint the upstairs bathroom.

And paint we did!

Before.

After!

We both are happy with the outcome, though it has taken a couple of days to grow on us!  At first we thought we may have gone a bit dark, but the more we step into this private space of ours, the more we feel like it is us rather then the people who lived here before.  And that makes us love it more.

Plus, we absolutely love the white accents against the gray walls.  The color combo is amazing!  Posh, darling, posh!

(Side note: I would just like to say that I think that 80% of the fun of painting is reading the creative paint color names!  I had so much fun looking at all the different colors and the names of those colors.  So much fun, in fact, that I was looking at colors that we had no interest in considering just so that I could see what they were named!  I highly recommend this if you are ever bored and are in need of some creative color inspiration!)

Cases Closed

With respect to case #98713-T, the case of the missing tree tops, we hereby determine the loss of those tree tops (and trees, for that matter) to be due to the power lines that have taken precedence over the oxygen and sanctuary released and provided by said trees. Furthermore, any future occurrences with this matter and this case belong to the City of Upper Arlington; they are given the right to entirely rid the power lines of any and all tree limbs that may interfere with perfect power supply. With respect to the residents of such backyards that may have been affected by the removal of these trees, we are truly sorry, from the bottom of our hearts, that you live in 2011. For if you had only lived about 100 years ago, this case would have been in favor of keeping the trees the way they were, because there were no power lines to interfere with.

[Gavel and sound block smash.]

Note from the plaintiff with reference to case #98713-T: We miss our trees. They provided the perfect screen to make our backyard seem like our little oasis. We understand that we need power, as do our neighbors, but we will be revisiting this area with a solution to bring the privacy back to our backyard. And we will be doing it soon…we hope.

With respect to case #68432-P, the case of the inexplicable nibbles on and around the Halloween pumpkins on the porch, we hereby determine the culprit to be squirrels, of which you are not approved to hunt, capture, trap, torture, lure, or kill intentionally. Furthermore, any future occurrences with this matter will result in the occupants of each residence to remove any and all Halloween pumpkins away from areas that squirrels may traverse if pumpkins with little bites taken out of them are unacceptable.

[Gavel and sound block smash.]

Note from the plaintiff with reference to case #68432-P: Those little stinkers ruined all three of our pumpkins! We have no other comments...