Category: Dogs

Friday progress

So a bit of the story with this painter.  We hired him to strip and then paint a few sections of the house including:

  • The soffit and frieze board on the driveway side of the house
  • The soffit and posts on the porch, all the way around (top part of the posts since we are re-doing the lower sections)
  • The siding next to the side door
  • The shingled section in the peak on the driveway side (he didnt have to strip this section, just sand/prep for paint and then paint.

The quote is not tiny, mostly it’s for the stripping which is understandable and it was very clear that everything was covered except for the shingle section since that wasn’t getting stripped he didn’t write that part out explicitly like the rest.

Well they stop by the first day of the job and I talk to the owner (who did the quote) and turns out he didn’t realize we needed the whole soffit of the porch done, he thought it was just the posts and the board the posts touch (or something like that) so he wanted to get back to me with a new quote.  At the time i didn’t have the quote in front of me so I didn’t argue but was concerned about how much more this would cost.

So I get the new quote and the wording ‘soffit and frieze board around the porch’ is the exact same wording as the original quote so we mention this to him and he admits he just screwed up.  He asks if we’ll work with him, it would be cheaper for him to have his guys remove most of the wood instead of stripping it and put up new wood.  Fine, as long as they can make it look very close to the original, that is fine with us.

So they get to work, they have 1 guy stripping the posts (and man is he slow) and another guy starts taking apart and rebuilding the soffit around the porch.  Well it became clear pretty quickly that a) the stripping is going to take forever, the guy only showed up sometimes and he was ridiculously slow at stripping (he had the wrong type of scrapers mainly and he kept dinging up the wood).  I mean it’s nothing compared to the work I did stripping the soffit outside our gym.  ho hum.

Then it became clear that the carpenter he hired is not a finish carpenter, he can’t do moldings well, not only does he waste tons of material cutting things wrong, he leaves corners with gaps and broken tips and he puts up the moldings in small sections because that’s all he can manage by himself.  One corner in particular was really bad so we complain about that and the owner decides to get another carpenter he hires sometimes to come fix it.  Meanwhile the first guy is still working on other sections.

In the mean time, they started this job in August (13th), they worked that first week then showed up sporadically the second week then stopped coming until this past week, right when Ryan was off and needed to do siding on that side of the house (we had anticipated that the main work would at least be done and they at the worst would be painting at this point – nope).

So Ryan and the guys are stepping on each others’ toes and Ryan is catching them doing all manner of stupid things and ends up helping them (when he needed his time to do siding etc.).  Finally the owner basically fires the first carpenter and wants the second carpenter (who admits freely that he is not a finish carpenter and it took him so long to do that one corner of molding he doesn’t feel comfortable doing the larger molding by himself).  He however knows a real finish carpenter and we decide to just hire this other guy to put the molding up and the painter’s carpenter can help him (the painter is paying him to put up the molding so that works out).  So we will be out an extra thousand probably when this is all done but the large molding is coming out SO much better and we are finally happy with the work.

The stripping is still taking forever!  The same kid (whom we found out was hired at the time of this job starting so this is his first time doing any type of construction and no one is overseeing him!), is still working on stripping the porch.  They replaced almost everything but he’s got to strip the moldings at the top of the posts and the moldings in the front of the house/triangle/peak.  The soffit along the driveway hasnt been touched yet and has a large section to strip as well.  No idea when this project will get done.

Today however Ryan got a few more pieces of siding up and the window installed!  He’ll be continuing siding this weekend and next week before he goes back to work on wednesday.

And now some pictures, we walked around the house today after everyone left.

The last window is in on this side!
The peak, they had to replace some rotted wood and the first carpenter put in the small molding. Ryan agreed to put in these small blocks to save the carpenter from having to do these outside angles on the molding which saved probably a day of labor.
The large molding is done – all around the porch, they just have to do the one at the second/third story of the house next week.
They even did the peak because there was no way to meet up the new trim with the old. Notice only 1/2 of the peak is stripped, the kid started this in the morning and must have got bored because he then swapped to doing other parts instead of just finishing it for some reason. This whole triangle I could do in an hour easily, took him 3 to do half of it.
The painters showed up one day this week and started priming the molding that was up, Ryan mentioned to them that the stripping still had to be done and would mess up their paint so they stopped. I hope painters are coming next week now that it’s almost ready for them!
The back corner. We are so happy with this now, thank goodness something is finally working out.

So this will cost us but it was worth it to find a local finish carpenter that does good work on historical houses and he’s not slow about it either.  He also brought his dog (he brings here everywhere) and she hung out in the back yard and even met Fitz for a bit 🙂

Maia and Fitz

 

Camping with Babies

That’s right, last weekend was our annual Groudas family camp out in Knox.  This year we had 2 little ones with us so it was very interesting.  Luckily the days went on without a hitch, little Jason crawled around happily, not caring that it was grass and not a floor to crawl on.  His favorite activity by far however was getting pulled in the wagon by grandma who drove him over to the pond and back  multiple times (a day).

Grandma, the pond is that way, why are we going into the woods??
Oh! You want to take my picture? Awesome!

Alex’s favorite activity during camping (and any time really) was getting some naked time with daddy tickling her with a blanket or burp cloth or whatever.  This is her favorite game and getting to be naked made it even better evidently.  She surprisingly did not pee all over the place like she does at home.

Our kid loves to be naked and outdoors.

On Saturday it started to get a bit warm out so the kids got changed into something lighter to wear.  Alex decided to sport her favorite dress.

She loves dresses because she can pull them up and eat them.
little jason doing some yoga poses
thank you grandma for bringing the little travel swing – naps were great because of it!

While naps were great, sleep was ‘okay’.  Better the first night than the second for sure on both counts.  Alex slept until 2am in her bouncy chair Saturday night.  When she woke up her hands were freezing (i didn’t think to bring mittens or a hat).  So she spent the rest of the night in bed with us which meant she woke me up to eat a few times.  Saturday night jason slept great, he did wake up crying at one point but it was probably a dream because he calmed down and slept the rest of the night.

Sunday night was a different story for both kids. Alex slept the entire night with us after watching fireworks.  This meant we were up every 2-3 hours to eat.  Jason was up crying quite a bit himself – probably the molar he had pop through (bad timing!).  Of course he slept soundly right through the fireworks.

The fireworks were short lived though Sunday night, Fitz got freaked and after a while ran off to get away.  After an hour of everyone searching in the woods (and down the road) for him he finally slinked back on his own.  Crazy dog.

So Sunday was not as good a night as Saturday and on Monday everyone was a bit tired.  All in all though camping was successful, no one got hurt!  Oh except Fitz there too – he got a huge thorn in the paw and was limping/crying until Ryan took it out.  Other than that no one got hurt!

the tents – notice pj and erica’s tent hiding behind our tent – not the ideal location when babies are crying in the middle of the night !
Jason and PJ had a little accident in the pond when the canoe tipped over during an attempt to land 🙂

I didn’t get a trip in the canoe this year, Alex needed constant attention (she always does) so I took my breaks to do more productive things like eat.  Next year though I plan to get out there!

And another one down for a nap! Success!
One goes down, the other gets up – ‘Mom, i’m not amused, don’t you have any NEW toys for me?’ 🙂 She’s so opinionated.
Don’t be fooled by my cool shades, mom did not let me out in the sun at all, i was stuck under the tarp all day!
Dressed in her new camping outfit as it started to cool down for the evening.
Oh look – the cousins match!
Jason’s favorite books by far are his bug books – he just kept going back to read them again.
Alex, not to be outdone grabbed her own book to read and settled in 🙂 She’s not competitive in the least i swear!
and the burpcloth/blanket game again – she loves this!
jason got to sit on the tractor with grandpa, this did not last long, but he kept looking for the tractor when he heard it!
a little photo opportunity

On Sunday we all went out for a little adventure (actually Alex slept so she stayed at camp napping).  We went out on the quads then met up with Aimee, Jason and Jason at the pond.  PJ caught a bass after only fishing for about 15 minutes with bobbers that don’t float no less!

See! I wasn’t joking – this kid loves to read! Just like his momma!
Giving me the stink eye – cutie!

Later on Sunday our friends Justin and Jen brought their little one over to play for a bit as well.  He and Jason didnt’ exactly play ‘together’ but next to each other, it was cute and Landon liked the wagon just as much as jason did.  Next year it will be Jason and Alex fighting over the wagon!  Or hopefully, Jason pushing/pulling Alex in the wagon.

One wakes up from a nap…
The other passes out 🙂

On Monday we waited until the tents dried out and then got packed up to head out. Since we were able to drive the trucks all the way into the campsite setup/breakdown was really pretty easy this year.  One good thing about drought conditions at least.

He’s a crawling machine now!
Packing up camp is hard work – tired Alex right out.

Just before lunch we headed out to go to Grandma and Papa Williams’ house for the day where I got a nice long shower – the best part about getting done with camping – showers feel awesome when you haven’t had one in a few days!

Family Visits

I got the most recent pictures off my camera and thought I would share some pictures from Aimee and Jason’s visit this past weekend:

Fitz thought Jason was a fun new toy/person to play with and snuggled right up. He was very good with all the grabs and quick movements from little Jason even one really hard ear pull 🙂
Little Jason opening his birthday gifts Friday night from us. He likes anything he can turn into a drum :)Little Jason opening his birthday gifts Friday night from us. He likes anything he can turn into a drum 🙂
On Saturday Uncle Mark, Aunt Mo and Hannah stopped by for some quick baby snuggle time.
Hannah meets Alex!
Uncle Mark snuggling with Jason.
Some photos of the cousins before little jason had to head home on sunday. Unfortunately Alex wasn't really in the mood 🙂
Jason however was a complete ham for me while i rocked alex and took pictures of him playing.
Alex was much happier being snuggled 🙂
My favorite pic of little Jason the monster 🙂 I have no idea how I caught this one but it was a great face!

And now it’s back to the week, counting down the days until the next weekend.  Monday Alex and I drove down to Worcester and dropped off 6 doors to be dipped/stripped (goodbye lead paint!).  That includes the 2 doors for the nursery!  Plus all the tvroom doors (3) and our closet door for our bedroom.  Going to have a lot of doors and windows to paint as soon as the weather is warm enough to keep the windows out for a period of time!

Weekend Update

Well this weekend was eventful but not quite productive 🙂  Ryan was away with his friends for a long weekend so after getting the house cleaned up and organized, and doing lots of baking I had a little girl party on Saturday (stitch friends).  One of the treats I made was these homemade strawberry sorbet in chocolate cups treat:

Mmmmm - strawberry sorbet!

Fitzy had his cousin Buddy over to play for the weekend and they really are best buds.

Tuckered out on sunday 🙂

Saturday was  a long day and after the girls all left I just crashed for the night (after clean up of course).  Sunday I had big plans to be productive – but when i woke up I was still tired so the dogs and I chilled for most of the day (I finished up a good books with them cuddled on the couch).  In the afternoon I did manage to do one little household item that’s been on my list for a long time…

We have this old switch (turn style) for the basement entryway light and it doesn’t always work (the wiring is old and loose).  Since we put in new basement lights when we first bought the house I’ve been meaning to run a new light and switch off of that circuit so I could reliably see going down the first half of the basement stairs with laundry in my arms.  Plus this means I could disconnect a bunch of the knob and tube that’s spliced numerous times for this light/switch and an old outlet.

Took a little while but we have a light.  This isn’t permanent, when we remodel the kitchen we’ll be redoing this entryway a bit but who knows when that will be so for now we have a light!

New switch (see the turn style one to the right - that's now disconnected)
New light fixture (the old one was definitely not up to par)

I also hung up a sheet to keep the dust more contained in our work area (since I’ll be sanding the drawers and shelves of the built-ins as soon as I’m motivated to).

Work area dust sheet 🙂

I spent Sunday evening over at my uncle’s house for my cousin Maia’s birthday.  Buddy is going to stay the week with them so he made the trip with me.  The dogs must have worn each other out because Fitz was pretty tired most of Monday when I worked from home.  He has completely recovered however and thank goodness it was daycare day – he was driving me nuts this morning!

And last night I decided to do something fun and make a baby quilt for Itty Bitty! I actually only intended to get the strips cut but it went so quickly I couldn’t stop myself.  This is the same pattern I used for the crib quilt for little Jason but this time I used all flannels.   I just have to figure out what to use for backing and binding now.  The one unfortunate thing was that I could only use 10 flannels so I had to limit my choices and now i have leftover favorites so I may need another quilt.  But after I finish this up I need to make an owl wallhanging.  Maybe I’ll make burp cloths or bibs something with my scrap pieces.

Fabrics that I selected for the quilt
Quilt top all put together (crib size)

The corners of the blocks definitely do not line up well but the nature of flannels is that they are stretchy so that was challenging and since the quilt is so busy I wasn’t worried about it.  Plus I plan to lay it on the floor for tummy time – not exactly important that it’s perfect 🙂  This quilt took only 3 hours to cut and piece (for future reference)!

That was my ‘weekend’ with a work day 🙂

 

Happy Valentine’s Day

I hope everyone has a wonderful day!  I got a special treat with my lunch (they’re doing free cupcakes if you buy lunch and for once they didn’t have chicken so I could buy lunch!)

By the way - this was too good and went too quickly - i'm tempted to buy a second lunch just to get another one 🙂

And Fitz is certainly having a good day at daycare  🙂

Lots of friends to play with!
This looks like a staring contest 🙂

Finally a productive weekend to share…

It’s been a while since I posted because we hadn’t done much around the house but this weekend we got a lot done.

First up on Saturday morning we went shopping.  We went over to AcMoore and got the antique maps my dad gave us framed (well we’ll get them in a few weeks – but we picked out frames and mats etc).  This was not cheap but we’re very excited to see how they look and they’ll be preserved now.  One is an old atlas (1905) of NH and the other is a survey map from 1892, it has our street before our house was built.  I’ll definitely show pictures when we get them back framed!

Then we headed over to babiesrus and bought a glider for the nursery (it has to be ordered) – so our first nursery purchase has been made!  We still haven’t picked out a crib set yet but since the nursery hasn’t even been demo’d yet we’re not in a rush 🙂  We had a 20% off coupon, hence the purchase of the glider!

Finally we finished up at home depot, buying the hardibacker for the master bathroom floor.  When we got home we got right to work, I moved all the oak flooring that was stacked in there and vacuumed, then Ryan put down the hardbacker.  Then I put up some plastic over the exposed part of the ceiling to keep insulation from dropping on anyone in there (1/2 of the ceiling hasn’t been demo’d at all yet).

hardibacker laid down ... we still have to remove the radiator when we really refinish this room so we just layed enough to make the room usable, on the right where it's still exposed is where I've now stacked all the oak floor we pulled up.
The ceiling covered
We'll probably put the head of the guest bed up against this wall. Very classy guest room 🙂

Once that was done we moved on to working on drawers for the built-ins (7 left to do).  This was quite a project, first we had to make the blocking for the hardware to hang on (so the drawers could slide out without hitting the doors), then we cut some of our poplar planks down to size and then planed it to 5/8″ (the hardware I bought only fits up to 5/8″ thick wood – oops).  This took a LONG time but once that was done we dado’d the boards (to slide the plywood bottoms in) and I got to work cutting the drawer pieces to length and pocket hole drilling them while Ryan installed the blocking and hardware slides in the cabinets themselves.

On Sunday we started making drawers, unfortunately they didn’t quite fit where they were planned to fit but they all fit someplace so 3 are done.  It’s possible we’ll have to cut the fronts and backs of one drawer fresh at the end from the one plank we have left.  Not sure why since the measurements aren’t different but something is off with one of them (the blank space).

3 more drawers done and installed (still need face frames but we're saving those for last)
4 more drawers ready to go!
The last cabinet, ready for the hardware to be hung!

The absolute worst part about all of this is that we have to hang the drawers to make sure they all fit properly etc.  However then we have to take off all the hardware so we can paint the built-ins – ugg!  But we’re getting close now, only 4 more drawers to make and the hard parts are done.

The rest of sunday we relaxed (ryan had work to do) so we put on some movies (ending the evening with Emma!) and I stitched.

Royalty ABC - I had previously finished the large queen stitched diamonds and backstitched row below it so Sunday I did the long arm row and then scrolled...
And this is the bulk of what I stitched on Sunday. The next part of the alphabet, a satin stitch design row and the start of the large flower. This is now page 3 of the design! More than halfway done!

I really love having some time to stitch again, it’s been so long and doing a piece like this where each row feels like a little ‘finish’ is really easy to pick up with just a little free time.

The only downside about this weekend was that poor Fitz got an eye infection (dogs can get pink eye evidently).  Luckily not contagious to humans, I felt bad for him and after a visit to the vet this morning he’s on antibiotic drops a couple times a day for a week.  It’s already clearing up and he’s definitely acting himself.  I’m undecided about daycare tomorrow (i need to call them and hear what they think) but might just postpone and do daycare on Thursday this week instead of Tuesday, give him more time to fight it off.  Even though he’s acting normal and definitely needs an energy outlet!

That was our weekend!  With 4 drawers left to build, face frames for all 10, then the doors to finish the built-ins are getting closer!  Let’s see what next weekend brings (besides the super bowl of course).

A day in the life (of Fitz)

Fitz is spoiled, he better enjoy it, i’m sure things will change once the baby comes!  But over the past 9 months that we’ve had Fitz he has been spoiled almost constantly.  The difference is that now he’s comfortable here and I think he’s starting to take advantage 🙂

Case in point: The couch.  At first there was a definite no couch rule.  Then occasionally Ryan would pull him up onto his lap for some petting.  Then it was my turn and I dragged him up once or twice when Ryan was working late and I wanted some company.  Finally last week after daycare he was whining (he wants to go up to his good bed when he’s tired) so I put his blanket (one of many) on the couch and ‘coaxed’ him up.  It didnt’ take long and now he’s comfortable jumping right up if invited (although he does sit for you first if you’re inviting him to make sure you want him).  So now he’s taking up 1/3 of the couch some nights between Ryan and I.  Oh boy!

Second point: Daycare.  It started to get him socialized (or keep him that way anyway) and he got agility class at the same place.  But I never knew how he was behaving at that daycare, couldn’t tell if he liked it (he just whined when we got there and when we left – I have no idea what that means).  So I found a nicer daycare (aka. more expensive) that he LOVEs (and I love because I can see how he is during the day – they send pictures) and I can spy on him when I drop him off/pick him up.  He is much less whiny (I told them when he whines he needs a break and I suspect they are giving him breaks to relax), and he still sleeps the whole next day without bothering me (bonus for me!).  Daycare once a week seems to be the key – again, once the baby comes this will stop (at least during my maternity leave – because the daycare is halfway to work).

Third point: Walks.  We’ve always taken long walks with him, but when we got him it was spring/summer.  As the weather got cooler (actually when I got pregnant) – walks got harder for me (I got sick after about a mile).  So he got shorter walks but almost every day he got to walk at least to the nearby park to mark all the trees.  There are days he doesn’t get to go and that happens more and more (freezing cold out/snowing/raining).  But even on days when I don’t want to walk far, I usually put him on the lead and we play ball for 10 minutes or so.  And lately I’ve resumed the walks even in the COLD weather because it’s good exercise for us both.  He loves the snow – so he got 20 minutes in the snow with his ball today which means I have to stay outside with him because if I go inside, he just sits and waits for me (and starts shaking if it’s cold out).  So again – spoiled.

That’s Fitz’s life.  I think it’s a drastic improvement over his life before he came to us as a stray.  We know we spoil him but he had 4+ years of who knows what so a year of spoiling is deserved – once the baby comes he’ll probably get a little less attention but hopefully he knows we love him (best dog in the world) 🙂

Fitz’s new daycare

Yes our dog goes to daycare – once a week to get his energy out and he loves it.  Well we decided in the new year to try out a new daycare – the Bark-o-lounge in Littleton.  Today is his first day and he’s already had a busy day playing with new friends.

Hey Fitzy boy
Meeting new friends 🙂
Getting introduced
And outside time
More friends
Actually pretty calm
And more friends

He is going to be exhausted tonight (and hopefully tomorrow when I’m working from home).  I really like this place, they send out emails with pictures during the day and have a facebook page to follow where they post some pics during the day as well.

Stomach bugs…

What a strange weekend we had.  Saturday I was feeling so much better from my cold finally so we worked on the house (knowing we had only one day this weekend since Ryan had a bunch of work work to do on sunday).  First we ran to the dump to drop off the final loads from last weekend, then over to pick up our new windows from Marvin.

Home again we decided to continue the demolition in the upstairs diningroom so we could put up the new wall for the hallway.  It was very messy demo due to the insulation in the ceiling and we only did half of the ceiling (just enough to put up the new wall), since the master bathroom will not be done for a long while and i’d rather get the floor down before we demo the rest (it’s not fun cleaning demo debri from the upstairs and downstairs due to cracks in the subfloor).  The demo went pretty quickly (poor Ryan had to do all of it) but I helped with bagging it all up and now we have another dump load for another weekend waiting outside (hopefully before it snows!).

With that completed I spent about an hour vacuuming up the exposed insulation and the debri.  Finally we started the new wall.  We left a few of the studs out so there’s a makeshift doorway to get through for now (since we’re not finishing the bathroom for a while we’ll use it as our ‘guest room’ while we work on the nursery – need to put the bed someplace!).

Finally with the wall in and secured to both the upper and lower joists it was time to remove the jacks to see if the floor had any less movement or not.  It has definitely improved, it still moves (the joists included) if you jump on it so we may need to take future measures but there was definite improvement over before.

Ceiling demolition

 

And the other side
New wall started (still needs 2 more studs and blocking but it's enough for now).

Unfortunately on Sunday, even though we knew Ryan wouldn’t be able to work on the house I still had hopes to get a few things done but I woke up with a sore throat and headache (cold really doesn’t want to go away).  The sore throat was probably due to not drinking enough water on saturday because staying hydrated sunday certainly helped.  So while Ryan worked I crashed on the couch with some Pride & Prejudice and stitched as well as napped.

Stitching Progress update. Making good progress on this piece.

Then the stomach bugs came to our house.  Kind of.  Fitz was the first to go down.  Sometime after dinner he got sick (right in his bed too), and it was horrible.  He continued to get sick 4 times total over the next few hours and we were on high alert for any sign he might need to rush outside.  I have a nice big load of dog blankets that need to be washed (waiting to see how today goes first).  Poor Fitzy.  I finally took away his water (since he was just throwing it back up) and he was okay through the night.

Of course then later in the evening I got a bit of a bug (or just an IBS attack).   I was up till 3am with uncontrollable shivers every 20 minutes or so.  Not fun.  Poor Fitz and I are quite the pair.  So I decided to work from home today due to my lack of sleep and wanting to be able to keep an eye on Fitz (who is acting fine but wants to eat grass now – can’t find any!  – which makes me think he’s not better yet).  He is allowed a little water (although he hasn’t touched it yet) and I gave him some yogurt with peanut butter  for breakfast so we’ll see how that goes.  If he doesn’t get sick he’ll get rice and chicken for dinner tonight.  Hopefully whatever it was has passed and he can go to his new daycare tomorrow.

I myself am feeling better, I feel like I always do after an IBS attack so that’s probably what it was (from eating too much yesterday?).  I’ll take it easy with what I eat today and stay hydrated.  I should be able to work most of the day (maybe a short nap at some point).  And poor Fitz is stuck in the room with me so I can keep an eye on him.

That was our weekend – so much fun 🙂  I am very excited about the house progress, we can now put down hardi-backer in the master bathroom area and make it into a temporary guest room with sheets for walls  and the bed moved in there.  Then the nursery clean out project begins and eventually we’ll demo that room and get it going!

Wednesday night stitching

I think being sick means I’m in the mood to stitch finally. I continued working on the Royalty ABC banner by Jeannette Douglas, getting the first page completely done (of 4).

Page one done

I’m only making minor modifications here and there.  The crowns for example, while they’re all different, I didn’t like that hte one on the right had a queen stitch on top and the left one didn’t so I had them both have queen stitches and made them the same color too.  I did keep the styling different but I’m not completely sold on that either.  I like symmetry.

And Fitz ripped the head off of his xmas snake stuffed animal – too funny.  He’s finally gotten to destroying some of his toys (including is favorite orange squeaky ball) so I bought him a tough chew squeaky ball instead and we’ll see how long the stuffed animals last.  It does take a while for him to rip them (the snake has been a favorite since he got it because it has LOTS of squeakies).