Windows and doors and movies

(never mind the guy in the big black truck that likes to take advantage of the straight stretch in front of our house and do about 65MPH)

Monday Taryn went for her allergy shot and I had a dr appt. Got to hear the baby's heartbeat and do all that other fun stuff of a first OB checkup (blood draw, pap, etc). Then, since we were out, we popped into Lowe's to buy door for the new living room. There are several Lowe's stores in the area, but the one we usually go to is known as "North Fayetteville". We looked at their door, with lots of banging and fighting in the background (some crazy people took a whole herd of children in the store!!). Eventually we decided on a front door, and then went to get the back door we'd noticed on our last trip. Except now they didn't have that door in stock. As a matter of fact, even though it was still on display, they don't even stock it at all. A similar door, also displayed in the 36" width, was in stock as a 32" door. sigh. Bob thought it would be more convenient to get both doors at the same time, so we went to the front desk and had them check if any other store had the back door in stock. Several of them did, but the closest was the "Springdale" location, and they agreed to hold it for us.
After supper (Zaxby's, I think) we went to the other Lowe's and our back door was waiting for us. So then we went to get the front door we'd picked out. At North Fayetteville it was in stock and cost $322. At Springdale it was a special order and cost over $400. foiled again! Well, we bought the back door anyway and discovered only one would fit in the van at a time anyway.

We took delivery of our windows on Tuesday, and then spent the afternoon hanging the back door. :) There was a little hammering and lots of caulk/adhesive, and it went in!

Wednesday we took some stuff to the recycle center, taking advantage of their "free bulky waste" week which was in the newspaper over a month ago and not since. I also got in the garden again, helping the children plant lettuces and carrots.

Today Taryn needed another allergy shot, so we were off again. I thought we'd make a quick in-and-out stop at the North Fayetteville Lowe's to grab our front door, but Bob got creative. But first we had lunch at Wendy's. As we turned in we noticed the sign in the driveway declaring 99cent kids' meals with combo purchase, so we all picked out our combo choices and went to order. Except, the sign was for Backyard Burgers next door. So we had to fall back and regroup. Ordered off the value menu. Fed 10 people on $25.
After the shot we went to a feed store for a little grain for Dinner, our beef cow. While Bob waited for the warehouse people to get his order, we watched a worker load 9 flats of tomatoes in the slowest possible manner. It was starting to feel like this wasn't going to be a good day in the customer service department.
Bob thought it would be fun to go to the South Fayetteville Lowe's to see what they had in stock. We got some tomato plants and garden soil, then looked at the doors. They had the door we'd picked out before, but now Bob didn't like it. So we almost decided on another one that was special order... Asked a worker if it would be in stock at another store, but he pointed out that all 15 of the special order doors on display had the same model number and couldn't be checked on. yeah.

To rest our weary feet, I went to Aldi and got a few veges.

Then we went to a guitar store and bought a case for Cedwryck's mandolin. Then had supper at AQ Chicken (delicious as always). Then, just to shake things up, went to Home Depot. They still have the race car carts! Riah remembered them from Abilene. Daniel cried when we left because he liked it so much. They had the same garden soil on sale at Lowe's for 50cents less per bag. They also had two doors in stock that were acceptable to me, but Bob didn't feel an overwhelming connection to either of them. sooooo...

Back to North Fayetteville Lowe's. This was a quick in and out, but got nothing except the special order book for doors. We just aren't decided. Drove home in a fantastic thunderstorm, part of the way behind a man who was going about 15MPH (in a 35 zone), occasionally coming to a nearly-full stop halfway over the center line, and then swerving over the white line, nearly hitting a traffic cone. Yikes!

Movies... just one, actually. We rented "Frozen" and after Bob and I watched it, we all watched it together. I've read reviews pro and con (mostly pro), and while there are some reservations (can a person save themselves?) a person can pretty much take away from it what they want to. Personally, I thought it was a good illustration of 1John 4:18 "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."

company chicken

We had a family of 6 over for dinner last night, and those guys can EAT! (Our guys do, too.)
We had a Chinese food buffet, with (bought) egg rolls, two kinds of chicken (since beef is 3x the price of chicken now), two veges, noodles, rice, and peach cobbler (so that's not Chinese, but tell me the mocha cakes are!).
I was asked for the chicken recipes, and since I have to type them anyway i thought I may as well share them here, in case Wil doesn't have them already. I mean, for all my dear readers. ahem.

Chinese Chicken (original recipe - I made about 3 times this much)
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken (some like thighs; I like breast), cut into 1 inch pieces
1/4 c. cornstarch
2 T oil
1/8 tsp garlic powder
8oz can sliced water chestnuts, drained
4 oz can sliced mushrooms, optional (or fresh, but still optional) yuck!
2 ribs celery, sliced
4 ozs fresh snow peas, prepared (I left these out since no one actually likes them)
1/4 c soy sauce (Kikkoman is best)

Coat chicken with cornstarch. Heat oil in large skillet to med-hi; add chicken and brown quickly. (Do this in batches if making more than one pound). Sprinkle with garlic; lower heat to medium; add next 3 ingredients. Cook and stir 2 minutes. Add remaining ingredients; cover, reduce heat to low, and cook a few minutes.

Honeyed Chicken Teriyaki (for 4 servings - I doubled this as well)
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1 or 2" pieces
1/2 c flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 egg, beaten (I forgot this step!)
oil

sauce:
1/3 c honey
1/3 c soy sauce
1 T sherry
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp grated fresh ginger

Combine sauce ingredients and warm gently.
Combine flour, salt, and pepper. Dip chicken in egg, then coat with flour. Heat oil in frying pan over med-high heat (it says 1/2 inch deep, but I usually don't go that deep). When hot, add chicken in batches. Cook and turn till nicely browned. Drain on paper towels, then place in baking pan. Pour sauce over and bake at 250* for 20 minutes or so, turning once to coat.

hello again

I haven't been keeping up the blog, have I? sigh. When I have things I want to say, i don't have a chance to say them. When I have time, I don't feel like writing.

We've got the bathroom ALMOST done. Just a bit more with the mirrors, and touch-up paint. And another towel rack, and an over toilet cabinet.

Got housewrap on the new living room, and poured cement for the bay window foundation, and started to frame the window. Took a picture, but my card reader isn't working.

Got the garden about ready to go, and started seeds indoors (even though I swore last year was the last time).

Elijah finally learned his ABCs. Daniel learns a new word every day, and gets into more trouble than a pet skunk.

I'm battling nausea and exhaustion. Bob is wrapping up his photography degree, and Taryn's learner's permit expired. As the county sheriff is now using the community center for an office (where they did have driving tests once per week) I don't know where to take her.

It snowed AGAIN today. We got about 2 inches, on top of heavy overnight rain. So hopefully we are catching back up with our average rainfall, as we continue to slosh about the yard. I don't even remember how many snow days we've had this season, but it was a lot. The public schools are doing Saturday school to make up for all the time lost.

Daniel slept all night for nearly a week, and then was up at 3 this morning. The children take turns feeling sorry for him; I didn't even hear him last night.

The dog killed two chickens, but the live ones are laying again.

And the laundry monster refuses to die...

More of Daniel and the bathroom

The day after I wrote about Daniel, we went out to eat at AQ Chicken house in Springdale (the one in Fayetteville is better, but we were in Springdale). Daniel was super fussy, and even the hot rolls didn't help, since he isn't a big eater like my others have been. Finally he decided the next best thing to running down the hall (which I wouldn't allow) was to play with the little foil margarine packets on the table. He crinkled it for a few seconds, and then wanted it open. I figured at this point I had little to lose, so opened it for him. He played with the spread for several minutes, mostly trying to figure out how to get it off of his fingers (and thereby spreading it further). Several napkins later he was starting to fuss again, so Taryn handed him another packet, apparently unaware that he'd just had one. This time, however, he had a knife as well, and used it to scoop out the fake butter and proceeded to eat it. At least he wasn't screaming. Before we could finish our dinners, he'd eaten two packets of the whipped topping, as Taryn began to sing:


And we worked on the bathroom some more this week, making 45 trips (oh, maybe it was 4-5) to the hardware stores for plumbing parts. Here is the bathroom at its most demolished, with Bob sitting on the cold, wet ground under the house so he could work on the plumbing while he still had a nice opening and light to work with (rather than crawl under later).

 And here is the bathroom as it stands today, awaiting another trip to Lowe's for paneling and the tub surround. The untiled area is where the tub will go.

all about Daniel

Because we haven't done anything with the bathroom lately.
And because he's so CUTE and growing up and changing every day.

Daniel is 18 months old today. He says several words now without prompting. First (of course) is Mama. Now this has the usual meaning of maternal parent, but it also can mean "I want". He will gesture at his desired object and say "mama." Or perhaps he will show his displeasure at being made to do something (strap into car seat, etc) by yelling "mama."

Having discovered that I don't always answer just because he says my name, he has taught himself to say "ow!" when he really wants something. (And sometimes, if he is hurt.)

He says "ew!" whenever I check his diaper, if it is wet or not, and at other gross things.

"Riah!" - usually said in an angry voice, but also when he wants to call any of the older children. He tries to say some of the other names, but he has Riah down pat.

"Up-uh" when he wants up.

"At" for cat and hat.

"Ball" for balls or balloons.

"woofwoof" for dog or other miscellaneous animals.  Other animals he growls at (he growls at my snowmen!).

"Mena" for banana, and applied to other fruits as well. How does a baby know that a pear is more like a banana than a cracker?

"mo-ee" for more. eeee-eeee for drink, usually accompanied by the sign.

"Dop!" for stop, when someone offends him in some way.

"unh-uh" for no.

"huh?" when I call him.

"Baby" when he sees another baby, but usually he also points at himself.

"uh-oh" when anything falls.

"sigh" for outside.

"Eye" for eye, nose, light, and fan.

"EE-o" for ear. He also likes to find Q-tips or hair pins and clean out his ears. We try to discourage this habit.

Daniel has curious tastes. He likes candy and cookies, as do the rest of us, white bread/rolls/crackers, peanut butter, fruit, and coffee. He doesn't eat meat, which isn't really weird at his age, except for the fact that meat/eggs was his first food. He's still nursing at least twice a day. We're past ready for him to be weaned, so we try to distract him whenever he starts to beg, but sometimes there's just nothing else that will do.

He doesn't play with toys much - prefers the canned goods or pots in the kitchen - but can stack 6 or more blocks. He likes to read books, though he still sometimes tries to use them as a diversion (by dropping a book, so we'll stoop to pick it up and he can get away, or by handing it to us so we will look at it and he will get into something).

He likes to watch short videos and some computer games, but isn't interested in the Nintendo. At night he frequently goes to sleep on Bob's lap. He usually sleeps all night now, but not always.

Daniel likes to have his hair combed. He once spent 15 minutes bringing a comb to Bob, who fixed his hair, then he'd ruffle it up and come back for more combing.

He still climbs on the table, and enjoys being on the top bunks. He likes to look at running water, but doesn't like showers. Scared of the vacuum and power tools, but is fascinated by them (wants to be held where he can just see what's going on).

He's very good at watching people do things and then imitating the movement. He can open doors, screw lids, flip caps, and baby-locked cabinets. He likes to eat chapstick and lotion. He "snaps" his fingers at people to get their attention, puts on Bob's reading glasses, uses a screwdriver, and tries to open candy wrappers.

He hasn't been weighed and measured lately, but is getting thinner and taller.

Daniel can just reach the water dispenser on our Berkey, and sometimes he gets himself a drink by letting water drip out onto the floor, then lying down and licking the water off the floor.

Anyway, I know I've missed some stuff, but that's all for now.

more bathroom

When our house was built in the 60s, the construction workers were told to use lots of nails. We know this because Bob's grandparents told us so. They followed directions. We know because we had to pull them out. sigh. 

There is a subfloor made of 2x4s on the diagonal, then a papery substance, then the hardwood floor- 1x2x18" planks that were laid down before the walls were built and so run along under the walls. Most of the house had been covered with carpet (which was then replaced a few times) and has all been pulled up by us except for the girls' room. But the bathroom, ah! the bathroom. Linoleum had been laid on top of the hardwood, and  then at some point the room was remodeled, when plywood was put on top of the linoleum, with more linoleum on top of that.

And all of it rotted.

The toilet was actually not the worst part of the bathroom. Once we started pulling out fixtures and flooring we got a better picture of how bad things were. When Bob popped out the shower thing (a single piece with floor and 3 walls) he noticed that the pipes were not sealed at the joints. And that, coupled with the long time usage of a shower curtain instead of a door, had soaked the floor through all those layers. Mold. Slime. Rot. Stink. Standing water.

We peeled back the linoleum. We pried up the plywood (a nail every 4 inches). We pulled up each plank of hardwood - even those under the walls, thanks to a "sawsall." And then, in the worst of it, we pushed through, cut, pulled, hammered, and otherwise removed the subfloor as well. Yeah, there's a 4' square hole in our bathroom now. We took down 2 walls of drywall, a built in cabinet, a vanity, a built in wall heater, a wall cabinet, a medicine cabinet mirror... And 5 wheelbarrow loads of rotten wood.

In the middle of the destruction Tuesday Bob cut through the shower water supply line and so did a 50 yard dash out to the shutoff valve, so we were without water in the house until I went to town for a fitting, which required a "crimping tool" that sells for $66. The nice guys at the lumberyard decided they could loan it out for a $50 deposit.

(Saturday, while Bob was doing schoolwork and I was playing Farmv... er, doing research online, the lights suddenly went out. The old fluorescent fixtures are a little temperamental, so I just waited for them to come back on. When they didn't, we went investigating. The circuit for the lights in 2/3 of the house had popped up. When we pushed it back down it sparked and popped up again, even with all the switches off. Bob switched out the breaker and it did the same thing. He finally decided it must be from our bathroom vent/fan, which we had trouble with and haven't turned on in a year. Then Riah decided it was time to take a 30 minute break. So in the meantime we prodded in the broken bathroom, by flashlight. Once Bob got into our bathroom and cut the wire to the vent, all problems were resolved. Then we got a better look at the main bath, and decided it had to be done.)

Sunday we took a break.

Monday we did some stuff here in the morning (I even worked in the garden for 10 minutes), and after lunch we went to Fayetteville. We checked the Habitat for Humanity Restore, and they did have a lot of tubs, but the tubs weren't cleared for sale yet (they test everything before they price it), and none of them looked very nice/just right. But we did find a reel mower for $40, and bought a bathtub sliding glass door that we thought we could find a track for, because new doors on Lowe's website were $700. Stopped by Taryn's doctor for an allergy shot.

Then we went to Lowe's. We were there about 3 hours before we decided to finish up and go eat supper. We looked at tubs, and they had in stock the one I'd seen online that said was a special order and would take 10 days to get in. Of the 4 tubs they had in the price range, we liked that one the best - it is a standard "footprint" but has an "apron" front, so the inside of the tub is actually 2 inches wider than normal. It was set up with the tub surround that we liked best, and had a custom made sliding glass door with it for $400. We realized the door we'd bought wouldn't work because it was straight, but didn't like the curved one, so decided to go with a curtain - they don't leak as bad on a tub as on a shower.  Then we looked at sinks and counters, and then over to cabinets where we found the cheapest cabinet actually suited, and came with a sink/counter. We looked at light fixtures, and I picked out the same one we'd installed at church, because of familiarity, and the reasons we bought it then - very quiet fan, takes regular sized bulbs. It is white and "brushed nickel" which is a soft silver color. Then we looked at faucets, and I first went for brushed nickel to match the light, but as we had a hard time deciding on a sink faucet I thought we'd pick the tub faucet first and match the sink to it (much fewer selections on the tubs). But then, I saw that in the chrome section (that is, shiny silver) they had tub/shower faucets with - gasp! - 3 handles!!! Remember when they all had that? And then for the last 15 years they've only offered the faucets with a single handle, so that the higher the volume of water, the hotter it is. (We managed to find a 3 handle one for our master bath, but had to order it online. Even the specialty plumbing store didn't have any.) So we decided to go with chrome. Picked the tub fixture, then argued about the sink faucet. (This was me and the girls. Bob had gone out to measure the van and see what we could fit in it today.) Bob showed up and helped us decide on a faucet. Then he didn't like that the light was nickel, so back to the lights and changed for a chrome one. Then to tile. They don't have white tile in anything bigger than a 4" square. We wanted white. So we talked about the little tiles. We looked at big ones that were mostly whiteish. We noticed that 99% of the tiles were rough on the surface, which we all agree feels "ugly." We were getting tired and grumpy and the children were going nuts, so we went to dinner. But first we had to load the van. This took at least 30 minutes, and finally ended with the tub out of the box, wedged in between the top of a seat and the ceiling. We didn't get the tub surround because it "wouldn't fit." 

Then Taco Bell. Took 20 minutes to get our food. Were still hungry. Got more food. Got a single churro that took 10 minutes to heat up. Finally left! To MIL's for our tile saw that they'd been using. Went to another Lowe's to decide about tile. Finally picked out a 9x18" marble-look that's labeled "wall tile" - on closer inspection, all the smooth ones are labeled for walls. Got mortar and grout. Went home.

Tuesday was the day of demolition described above. We had to move a bookshelf to get the shower unit out of the house. Taryn and I wore dust masks all day. Everybody drank some Emergen-C. Wednesday we worked more and calculated the plumbing needed. As the list got longer it seemed that it would be cost effective to go back to Springdale. Taryn called her allergist and they said she could get shot Wed. instead of Thur, and we were off. We finally found all the right fittings, the children were a little better, and then we ate at Buffalo Wild Wings, where the service and the food were both excellent. We decided it wasn't worth going out of our way to Aldi for bananas, but just as we left town I remembered we were out of milk, so we stopped at Harp's grocery. 

Once home, in anticipation of today's extreme cold, Bob rough-cut our new subfloor and covered the hole in the floor. Today, Thursday, Bob went to work with his friend at a remodel in Kingston. I'm keeping the fire going and catching up on laundry.

a birthday and a bathroom

Friday was Taryn's birthday. She had wanted to go ice skating with two girl friends (and maybe her family), and the rink was open on Saturday. On Monday the girls' father said they were permitted to go, but he didn't know if they already had plans. On Tuesday he thought they could go. By Thursday he wasn't sure, and Friday morning he said they couldn't make it. So she was disappointed, and in an effort to cheer her up we decided to go out for Krispy Kreme for breakfast - but not all the other doughnut shops in town as we did last year.

As the boys did their chores and we got ready to go, I cleaned the main bathroom. The toilet has been leaking, and I gagged every time the door was open, so I just had to clean it before we left. Seeing up close how bad it was, I declared that I would not come back home without a new wax ring (assuming the old one had smooshed or rotted and that's why it was leaking). Bob answered that he had recently changed the ring - we needed to get a whole new toilet.

So into town on the coldest day of the week. We got free hot doughnuts and bought a dozen. The new chocolate cheesecake ones are a lot better than the cheesecake ones they had last year. We thought we might get a new mattress for Taryn as her present - she's had the same mattress since... we bought that bed used 10 years ago, and it became hers 7-8 years ago. So it was past due. Went to one mattress store and she liked the first one she tried, but liked the next one better, and the third was great (but over $100 more). So I suggested we try another store. Meanwhile, Bob took William to a used game store to spend Christmas money on Wii Sports Resort. The second mattress store had a bigger selection of cheap twin mattresses, and she found one that she adored. (Just happened to be the same one the other customer liked). The salesman gave us $140 off the marked sale price, and we bought it.

Then we had lunch at Jim's Razorback Pizza in Lowell, which was pretty good, and reasonably priced. I drank soda with my lunch special - the first full glass I've had in quite a while. It tasted good, but didn't wow me. After lunch we went on to Fayetteville to the music store and to pick up the mattress at another location of the same chain. And we also went to Lowe's for the new toilet - we got the cheaper of the two chair-height rounded front toilets they carry. Got home at almost dark, but Taryn still managed to get Bob to grill burgers for supper (in the cold and wind).

And then we took out the old toilet. Oh, dear! This really deserves its own post, but I guess that will come. First, we noticed that it was gross. Second, it was really gross!! Okay, sorry. There's just no way to describe the smell or the revulsion of "brown water" inside my house. Right. The ring wasn't in bad shape, and the toilet didn't appear cracked. But the plastic thing that holds it all together was in bad shape. The drain pipe is lead. The rim of the pipe which is supposed to overlap with the wax and the toilet was broken, thus our leak. Based on visual cues, Bob decided to cut out the linoleum from around the toilet. And that's when IT began in earnest. The floor was rotten. After much deliberation, hammering, and poking around, we decided to go ahead and fix it rather than patch it with a proverbial bandaid and put it off.

And that gets its own post.