Working weekend...

The Memorial Day weekend starts off with a trip to the Koi Pond shop and removing the rest of the deck.

Sam loved the Koi pond but unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of him there. They have such nice ponds on display and they are so friendly to show us their personal pond behind their house that is just next door. I got so many ideas for the pond in the back yard and really look forward to being able to plan it all out to do later this summer or maybe next year.



So the remainder of the deck has been stubborn to come out, due to screws that have been in there too long, had stain clogging the head, or they break off when trying to pull them out. There were quite a few in this state when I started this afternoon and now there are none. I only have about 4 more short boards to take out that wrap around the end of the hot tub, which should come out with little trouble based on the ones that were next to these. Sam is standing on these boards in the following picture and you can kinda see them in the last picture way down at the bottom of the post.



Aimee helped while Sam was taking a nap and then Sam came out to watch when he was done napping. Aimee pulled a lot of the screws out that I had either forced out or that were just turning and pulled out the of the joist with the boards. There were quite a few of these and I really appreciated Aimee's help.



We ended up getting all the boards off by dinner time, then cut Sam's hair since we had been letting it get long for the past 6 weeks and didn't like it, before picture posted will post the after tomorrow when we get the pic.

Then I went back out and pulled up the joists and started unearthing the cement precast footings that were holding up the deck. Aimee was glad that I decided to do that instead of working in the garage like we had planned earlier in the day; she got to take it easy from her hard day's work.



Tomorrow, I need to move all the cement footings and then kinda level off the ground so there are not holes to trip in. I need to figure out some kind of temporary path to put down from the back door out to the grass until I figure out how to move the hot tub and if pavers or a concrete pad is going in to replace the deck.

I think the garage will be the task for tomorrow and Monday. Aimee said she would help with cleaning stuff up and putting up some of the last cabinets I haven't gotten up yet that are still sitting in the garage taking up space and waiting to be put together and hung. That will help to create space to put stuff that doesn't have a home at present and get one more thing off the floor to make more space. I am glad I put those cabinet pieces on a rolling cart though, it has made it easier to move it around the garage when they have been in the way.

Sam's Slide

Aimee went and picked out a slide for Sam at ToysRUs and upon trying to get it into the car decided it didn't fit and left it at delayed pickup. I went and got it today with the trailer while I was out at Costco picking up a cool floating inflatable 10 foot island for our camping trip this Summer. Just have to say that the float is really cool since it has a mesh center area that lets water in to cool the 4 seated riders, but will be great for Sam to be able to get in the water without being in the open lake. Hopefully it will be a good idea and if not it wasn't that expensive.

Anywho... I got it the slide of the box and put the support pieces on it and when Sam got up from his nap, he got to play on it until dinner time. He had such a blast. He was quite timid at first and even had a little trouble climbing the stairs since the slide is taller than he is. The first slide down it he turned over and went down on his belly, feet first. The next several times he wanted me to help, which ended up me having my arms outstretched to him from the bottom so he felt like I was going to catch him... he would go down mostly on his own and I would catch him at the bottom.



By the time dinner came he was going up the stairs by himself, sitting down at the top and sliding down on his bottom without needing us at the foot of the slide. He gained some real confidence doing it over and over and over... it was really fun getting to see him enjoy it so much. He did complain about hitting his bottom on the floor after awhile, so Aimee put a blanket at the end to add some padding. Sam approved.

John scared, almost to death

So, while I was emptying the water from the pond, I was messing with the irrigation pump and control valves for the sprinklers and the spigot by the pond. They had sediment clogging the valves and all the ones in the front yard wouldn't shut off completely so there was no pressure in any one line. Anywho... I was busy reaching back into the space at the front of the garage where the valves are positioned, messing with trying to get the timer control wires put back in the control box and Aimee comes running up to me from outside the garage really fast, screaming something...

IT FREAKED ME OUT SO BAD.

I screamed like a little girl, let out an expletive, just about fell over backwards into the garage and just had to walk away afterward cuz it got me soooooo bad.

Evidently she had seen Fred and came out to tell me that he was still alive. Well, she almost had to jump start me after blindsiding me like that. I swear, I was so deep in concentration working on getting that stupid wire to go into the controller that all I remember is faintly hearing Aimee at first, until she was right up in my face and then in all came to real time, real fast. Things don't usually get by me like that but when they do, it gets me really bad. When I am concentrating on something like that I can get so focused I lose track of all else. My Jedi senses are fading evidently.

Hopefully Aimee will read this and forgive me for being so mad about it at first; I am kinda able to chuckle about it now.

Fred scared, but not to death

Last Friday Aimee went to go do something with Sam and upon walking out the front walk saw that the little boy fishing statue we have by the pond had fallen in. She then found what she describes on her blog as a trout laying in the bark dust on the other side of the walk. It quickly dawned on her that it was Fred, our oldest Koi, and luckily found that he was still alive, slurping to breathe. You can read the rest of her details on her blog. It was very lucky for him that it was wet and rainy out instead of full sun.

Anywho... Fred wasn't doing too well after Aimee put him back in the pond, and was just kinda floating at the top against the side... I could see that he was still "breathing" and moving his fins around. I decided he may need some help after the trauma of being out of the pond so I went out and gently cradled him and moved him back and forth in the water to see if I could force some water through his gills and get him revived a little better. That seemed to have worked and he was doing much better for the rest of the day.

So I have been keeping an eye on him all weekend and would see him from time to time swimming around, but he has been kinda keeping to the deep. We haven't seen any other fish in the pond either as of this morning and I hadn't seen Fred yesterday and this morning at all. I assumed the worst; that whatever had gotten him out of the pond had come back to finish the job. So I decided that since the pond needed some fresh water anyways I would drain it a little to see who all was still there.

Lo and behold, Fred and several of the other fish, of 7 goldfish and two other Koi, are still in there, but they are all very shy now. I don't know what got after them, but it taught them a lesson about mortality I think. We had a blue heron take off with our original fish from the pond the fall after we bought the house in 2006; of which Fred is the sole survivor. So Fred is the war veteran who may have tried to sacrifice himself fighting off whatever it was. Evidently he was successful. We won't know for sure if the other two Koi, Barney and Wilma, made it until they decide to come to the surface again, but hopefully at least they made it. I could easily replace the gold fish, but am fond of them and how big they had gotten.

Fred seems to be doing fine, but keeping a low profile. Fred is one lucky/brave fish; he may be part catfish with 7 lives left.

To act as some kind of defense, I put up fishing line from the gutters to stakes in the ground around the pond and from gutter to gutter in the corner where the pond is. That should discourage any herons, but may be of little deterrent if it ends up being a raccoon or dog that got in there. I need to get the camera for the front yard installed so we can monitor what comes around the pond.

Anywho... will give an update on who exactly is left in the pond when they decide it is safe to come to the surface or we drain it enough to be able to tell.

Almost ready to drywall, and surprises

I finally finished the last two major things on the list to do before drywall tonight. The closet door light switch is now installed and functioning and all but the last piece of insulation is in the bathroom, including the spray foaming of the water lines that go over the ceiling to the other side of the room for the toilet and shower. I hope I got all the areas I needed to keep the water lines from freezing again; I really think I have it all over-insulated at this point so only time will tell.

I did get a surprise with the garage leak I thought I had fixed last fall; it started leaking again in the same area. That valley at the garage roof on the West side doesn't have the proper flashing like it should (neither does the other side for that matter). It may be easier to just go get some roof valley flashing and redo the whole valley to make it much better since I really don't need to or want to have the roof redone. I know there is some dry-rot on the roof sheeting that is going to have to be fixed since it is really squishy in a couple places and will probably have to address some of the issues with where the addition was attached to the original house not so well. I would really like to hold off on that since there doesn't seem to be any leaks in those areas right now. It probably just has to do with them not replacing sheeting they should have when they did the roof the last time.

So, with the rain we have been getting, it has been trickling in again, but totally manageable until I can get up there when it is a little nicer and put some more roof tar all over again. Maybe I should take my torch and heat it up a little to get it all to melt into place better this time. Usually the sun gets the roof hot enough to do that the next time it is nice, but evidently I didn't get enough patch tar up there this last time to take care of it.

bathroom buddy

I was in the bathroom, using the facilities, and Sam came in, moved his little potty chair out into the middle of the floor and sat down on it fully clothed as he commonly does while we are in there. I said, "Now all you need is a book." Sam got up and I didn't realize until after Sam came back and sat back down that he had a book with him. I guess he took what I said as a good suggestion.

10 things Sam, with pics

1. Playing with his Tonka truck he got for his 1st birthday; he's finally able to play with it pretty well without pushing down on the back, smacking himself in the head with the dump bucket or falling over the whole thing.

2. Sam is growing some flowers, "ow-waa" as he calls them, and they are almost ready to plant outside.

3. Sam can reach doorknobs now, but luckily cannot turn them yet.

4. Snacktime now has the option of being spent at Sam's table; he has also been able to eat outside with us for dinner.

5. I had to get out a spare keyboard for when Sam wants to play at my desk; he doesn't seem to mind that it doesn't do anything.

6. Superman piano playing; too excited to play to climb all the way up on the bench.

7. Sam puts his own socks away by himself

8. Getting ready for his 2nd birthday; the birthday candle shouldn't be any problem now.

9. Loving his doodler we got after he loved playing with his cousin's over Easter.

10. Really excited about the foam Noah's ark that we found stuck to the wall of the shower when wet; what a cute behind.

Whistle mimic

I was sitting at the table at dinner and for whatever reason, did a whistle. Sam copied it pretty good without actually whistling... it got me laughing pretty hard that I had a hard time whistling again to get him to keep doing it.

Poor Sam

Well, as trivial as it may seem to some, we have successfully identified that Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen handle pain in different ways. For whatever reason, Acetaminophen is taking care of Sam's teething pain to the degree beyond what Ibuprofen was helping him. He slept with Aimee in our bed this morning for 3 hours after waking up at 6:45 this morning, screaming. Aimee sat with him for awhile, after giving him the Acetaminophen, thinking he may want to nurse but when he didn't and just wanted to lay his head down on her shoulder, she laid down in the bed with him on her chest and he zonked out. (Wow that was a run on). Anywho, after about 20 minutes he was so out that she rolled him over and he slept there until 10am.



He had a low grade fever of around 101.5 when he woke up screaming, so there may be something else he is fighting cold wise. I doubt that the teething is causing all of that. I haven't felt too good the past couple days either, so we may be sharing something in that manner.

Luckily we got this game plan last night after 3 days of dealing with him and us just being desperate for relief. We decided we needed to go get some other Acetaminophen, since the Tylenol suspension we had was in the recent recall, and try it to see if it may help more than the Ibuprofen. Thank you fiends of other babies with teething issues for suggesting this in general; I just wish it would have dawned on us that it was his teeth that were the real issue and the Ibuprofen was just not relieving it.

Evidently his teeth are really bothering him, cuz this cut the pain, allowing him to sleep long this morning, have a cordial morning with Aimee, take an hour nap this afternoon, and did ok tonight when we went to the Birth to Three class that is kinda late for his normal bed time. You could still tell he wasn't feeling all that well, but he played in the other room for the first half hour of the class. He ended up sitting the last part of the class in my lap, very relaxed and content since I gave him another dose of Acetaminophen, instead of playing in the other room with the other kids. He felt quite warm, so figured his temp was on the rise again.

He ended up the evening with another 101.6 temp before bed and hopefully the Acetaminophen will keep it down overnight so he can fight whatever it is without having the dangerous high temp that would require intervention on our part. He was asleep on my lap almost as soon as the light went out tonight and he didn't even barely stir when I laid him in bed.

Sick babies are not fun; I hate not getting it right at first and needing to work through the options until something works... I guess you try your best and the rest is up to God to guide the way. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes while we figured this out.

BTW, I don't like typing Acetaminophen.

Sam "issues"

We have had an exceptionally whiny and irritable son for the past couple days; nothing seems to solve his distress. I don't know if it is the teething (which should be handled by the ibuprofen), the fact he is having outbursts at the table that result in him finishing early (hungry), just plain boredom, or something else we are not seeing that is causing him to be kinda distant, but a little clingy at the same time. Pray that whatever it is, Sam is able to communicate it or it reveals itself to us so we can address what is going on. He has been doing this moaning, "Uhhh!!", sound all morning and it is about to drive me nuts; in trying to figure out if there is something wrong and because I don't feel too well since yesterday either. Maybe he is getting some kind of flu or cold that hasn't manifested itself completely yet?

Why can't parents just read their children's minds? ...it would be so much easier!

I have been trying to get him to tell me when he hurts his hand or whatever that he is hurt before he gets any kisses to make it better. I started doing this with him a while ago and now any time he pinches his finger a little or bangs his hand he wants it kissed. But it is usually just him pushing his hand into your face and when we don't see him do it, we don't understand what he is doing some of the time. So the need for him to tell me it hurts before he gets the kiss, which is gladly given.

Oh and he got a timeout today for biting Aimee's hand when she tried to take him out of the office so I could be on a work conference call and they could go do errands. He has just been a moaning, irritable, fussy, obstinate mess of a little guy all morning. I feel really bad for him and just don't know how to console him.

Well, hopefully getting him out of the house and distracted will help with the way he has been acting. Aimee is taking him somewhere this morning I can't remember and then going to have a picnic lunch outside since it is somewhat nice out, and then going to watch a friend's child for about an hour this afternoon. Hopefully Eleanor and Sam can get along so Aimee isn't too stressed when she gets home.

Misc Project stuff

So here are a couple pictures from things I haven't posted yet for various things.

We moved the vanity inside so I would have more room in the garage and not risk dinging it, which has almost happened several times.



Here are the pics for the Insulation installation post. Can you imagine threading 4 rows of insulation across that end section with a sloping roof line... glad that is done. The last picture is of the area where the water lines come in from over the bedroom and into the corner of the outside wall; I think I used a whole can of spray foam to fill in that whole area and around the hard foam I put behind the water pipes you can see. Should keep them from freezing and getting really hot, like they have in the past.



I also started the door switch for the closet door. Cut/dug out a big hole for the switch box and drilled the hole into the wall cavity for the wiring, then tried to drill down through the top plate and didn't have a long enough 1/2 in drill bit. So until I get a longer one, this will be waiting.



I built the attic access from the garage, at right behind wall in picture. To try to explain what you are seeing, the insulated part is the partition in the attic space that separates the garage from the attic above the bedroom; the garage attic space is all open. The almost horizontal board you see in the first picture, and can see that it is insulated in the second, is the door which swings down, out from the top in reference from the garage. It sits on a stack of lumber sitting on the rafters so that it lines up with the crawlway, the light colored board on the left side of second picture that goes down the V in the rafters. The space below the access door and the crawlway, will be filled with blown in insulation, so this will allow you to get into that attic space without wading through insulation. The last picture is of the door closed.



This is a pic of the patch in the bathroom water line that goes to the toilet and shower. The thing wrapped around the pipe is a piece of rubber and a tubing clamp. You can see the hole in the second picture pretty good in the section I cut out to make the repair. It didn't take much movement to make the thing start leaking, so I cut out the piece and repaired it with a SharkBite quick-fitting, third picture. That last picture was taken after I had also put up the top layer of insulation in the bath and secured the furnace vent... you can see the repair just to the right of the 2x4 on the far side.



I also got the vent fan duct work in and taped/sealed.

Whistle mimic

We were at the table tonight and I don't remember the circumstances, but I let out a cat call whistle; you know the one that is stereotyped of construction workers when a pretty girl walks past. Well, Sam then went "Woooooohoooooo" to the same cadence and made a pretty good mimic of the sound without actually whistling. It was pretty funny and I was laughing so hard I could hardly whistle to get him to do it again. We tried to get a video of it, but it just wasn't the same as the first time. Will post what we got or if we can get him to do it on camera like he did the first time.

Insulation installation

Got insulation in the end of the bedroom (R-43) with a layer of R30 laid across the rafters and R13 in the rafters. I figured out too late that it would have been easier to put the R30 in first with the open rafters; I put up the paper faced R13 in the rafter spaces first and had to thread the R30 from the ends. It would have definitely been easier the other way but turned out not to be too bad.

I went on a HomeDepot run with Sam while Aimee was having some "me" time and got some additional insulation and some soffit vent spacers (can't think of the right name for them) for the bathroom. I got the first (top) layer, learning from the bedroom, of R30 laid across the rafters and around the solar tube, furnace vent and vent fan. It went in a lot easier even though there is less space in the rafters for it. I got the soffit vent spacers up for the area of the bathroom and put up the one that goes over the office nook which didn't have one. I have pictures, it's just too late to get them off the camera and on there right now.

It is no wonder it gets so hot in the Family Room since the attic above wasn't getting any air movement and just cooking up there; the insulation was packed right up in front of the soffit vents without the insulation spacers to allow air to flow above the insulation. I just have to figure out how to get them put in above the ones on the other side of the FR so more air can get up there. I may end up putting up a gable vent in that end to give it more chance to vent hot air on the hot days.

Oh, and I started the door switch for the closet; open door - light turns on, close door - turns off. I got the main hole cut, dug out really, in the door jam, I just have to get a longer bit to drill through the top plate into the wall cavity so I can fish the wires through. I think it will be nice to not have to deal with a switch in the closet where you always want the light on. Aimee made me aware of the one time this may fail; when I am trying to sleep and she is getting into the closet with the door operated light. Anywho...

Now all I have to do is finish the bathroom rafter insulation and the door switch wiring before I can get the drywall scheduled and get the skeleton of a Master Bedroom and bathroom back. Then there is painting and bathroom finishing; vinyl flooring, shower stall, toilet, light fixtures, and vanity. Hopefully I got all the wiring right and won't have any issues with hooking everything up. But there soon will be some noticeable progress once the drywall is in.