HOOPER and OTIS

We got another puppy!  Monica and Katie brought over a 12 week old terrier.  Monica and Dad have the sister, Lily... we decided to name him Otis.  They are getting along decently well... they just want to play!!!  hopefully they fall asleep eventually!

 

 

 

Otis is a "big dog, only little"  This bone is about 10" long and he dug it out from Hooper's stuff... Hooper has never touched it but this little baby was munching on it for a while...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESS!

Thismorning on our way to work in t he icy rain... the battery and brake light showed up on the dashboard... a bit later we lost the heat and the power steering... we pulled off 287 and figured out that the drive belt broke... so we were able to make it to Napa Auto Parts and Tommy was able to install the belt in the FREEZING rain... fun times!

Then this evening we went to Jess and Dan's for a surprise party for her birthday... We had pizza and cake.

SEWER!!!!

We got connected to the sewer in the street today!!!  How amazing!  The guys showed up at 7am this morning and they were packed up and gone at 2pm.  Turns out there were TWO sewer pipes in the street and they had to call the Municipality to come out and tell them which one to connect too.  Go figure...  After they were all connected Tommy went down to the basement and drained one of the clean-outs...  then him and his dad pulled out the inflated ball in the lower clean-out, it wasn't too bad though!

Tom's dad with a little bit of help from Tommy installed the kitchen sink and dishwasher and then they installed the toilet and faucet in the powder room.  I had to go to Home Depot to pick up the wax ring and while I was there i picked up the towel rack, toilet paper holder, and towel ring and when I got back I installed them.

Tommy finished the Dining room floor in the morning and worked throughout the day on the base molding.  He started with all the larger pieces in the entire first floor and just has to go back to all the smaller pieces.
 
I painted the crown and basecap for the foyer and some shoe molding... and I sealed all the tile in the master bathroom with one coat...

In the evening Tom went downstairs to mop up some of the water that came out of the pipes... he looked inside one of the clean-outs and it wasn't pretty... turns out that even though he told me not to I "may" have rinsed out buckets of grout in the master tub... well now the pipes are half way filled with sludgy sand... OOPS... Tommy managed to clean out as much as he could and a service call was put in to his dad to get a roto-rooter...   OOPS!!!

Hooper was exhausted by all that work!

LAST DAY W/O SEWER

Tom worked in the family room finishing up the hardwood floor.  He had to do some routing of the kitchen floor tile because it was a little off at the entrance to the family room... He straightened it out so that the piece of hardwood wasn't tapered.  He also rounded over the tile to make the transition a little better.

I grouted the tub in the J&J Bathroom... and cleaned the tub in the master bathroom (it was really dirty from grouting)... and I wiped down the tile walls and floors in the master bath so that I can seal tomorrow.

Tom's dad also came down with some more sheetrock.  He spent his day in the basement putting little pieces of sheetrock on the ceiling around the pipes..

Then we made another trip to Home Depot to pick up a toilet for the downstairs bathroom... why?  because we are getting connected to the SEWER tomorrow... can you believe that?  I really hope they come... they cut the pavement on the street on friday and delivered a large backhoe so we should be good, but you never know... With the luck we have had so far with regard to the sewer I am not holding my breath...

BASEMENT SHEETROCK

Today was a busy day... First thing thismorning we had propane delivery... FUN!

I cleaned up the stairs... just in time... because the stair guy showed up to show us some railing samples and take measurements for nosing... He asked what kind of railing we wanted and when I said " I don't know, I haven't really looked"  he was shocked!!! Because when we got the stairs I had pictures printed and told him what I liked from each picture... This time I was unprepared!!!  But he showed us some books and I told him what I liked... and Tommy agreed.

Meanwhile, Tom's dad and Pawel arrived.  They worked in the basement all day putting up sheetrock... They got quite a bit done with occasional help from Tommy.  They used all the sheets that we had...

Tommy worked in the office and finished up the pieces of hardwood along the walls... The office hardwood is done and he got a good start on what is left in the family room.

I worked on grouting the floor of the master shower... Grouting is officially DONE in the master bathroom.  That is great!

Afterwords, I worked on sanding the mantel to get it ready for finishing...

Then we went to Home Depot and did some returns... a bunch of plumbing stuff... the lady wasn't happy!  and then we spent it again...

When we got back Tommy put some Tung oil on the mantel... it looks fantastic!

INSULATION...YUCK!

Tonight when we got home from work Tommy worked on running some wires up through the "chase" area in the basement to the wall in the family room .  This is because we decided that we want the option to have the TV on either side of the family room... so he ran some ethernet, coax and speaker ire to that area and also ran a chase in case he needs anything else.  This was done because we won't have access after the "chase" is sheetrocked.

Meanwhile I cleaned up the basement... 

Then we we put insulation in the chase area so that we reduce the amount of heat loss in the heating pipes before they get upstairs...

All ready for sheetrock!

SNOW DAY 2!!!

We had another snow day today... YAY!  We spent the day working in the family room and office doing the hardwood floor.  We finished everything except for the edges along the wall, Tommy will get to those later...

Tom's dad was able to make it down and worked some more framing out the basement to get it ready for sheetrock.

FAMILY ROOM FLOOR

We got a little bit of the floor done in the family room done today... and Pawel and Tom's dad continued to work down in the basement... they put in some chases for future "ideas" and finished with the framing.  There a few more things that need to be done and then they can do the sheetrock. 

 

 

 

 

 

There are a few rules about ladders... The first rule is to never ever leave anything on top of the ladder! hmmm.... The second rule, maybe the more important rule is to never move the ladder without checking if there is anything on the top of the ladder... Let's just say both were broken, poor Tommy... He went to check something in the basement and a piece of pipe on top of the ladder fell on his nose when he moved it.

BASEMENT FRAMING

Today Tom's dad and Pawel came down and helped us out with some work in the basement.  They worked on framing out around some of the pipes... There were a lot of little pieces to frame out... This will allow us to put insulation around the pipes to get the most energy out of them and the boiler room will then be able to be sheetrocked. 

Tommy and I worked on some of our own tasks.  Tommy worked on finishing the hardwood floor in the dining room.  I painted some base molding and caulked the base molding in the front and rear J&J bedrooms.  Then we cleaned up the family room and office and got ready for hardwood floor... We had a few rows done before we headed to bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SICK WEEK

We were sick all week, well at least recovering from being sick all week.  We took off of work on Monday AND Tuesday to relax and drink a lot of tea... Then the rest of the week when we came home from work we just watched TV and took it easy.  It was the most sitting around we have done in years and although it was good we are glad tonight is our last night off... We can't imagine sitting here for one more minute!!!

DINING ROOM FLOOR

We got up late again today because we are BOTH sick! We tried doing some hardwood floor in the dining room and we got up to the doorway to the kitchen and gave up. We quit really early, went to Tom's parents for some dinner and chicken soup and left early to get some sleep. We really need to kick this cold!

SLEDDING

Today we went from a late wake up at Beata's to my parents house for a re-do on Christmas for Grandma Pitti. Before dinner though Tom, Dan, Dad and Remi(the dog) went sledding in the back"yard" with some of the neighbors kids...