Heavy Vanity Adventure

First off, my wife is awesome! I call her my "ride or die chick".  Whatever I get myself into, she's always right there with me.  This time it was moving a vanity we purchased all the way from Sequim to Snohomish and then figuring out how to get it up our weird split stairs. This thing is a beast and weighs 250lbs!

We rented a Uhaul with a loading ramp to transport the vanity.  Getting it in the truck was relatively easy with carpet dollies and the ramp.  The ride home was smooth sailing too.

Getting it up the stairs was the adventure.  I rented an appliance dolly to use. Once we got it off the truck we decided to tip it on it's end and get it on the dolly.  That part was pretty easy, so I got confident and figured "we can get this in the house." We made it into the house after tackling a few outside stairs on our walkway.

Once inside, breathing a bit heavily but with more confidence, we both thought we could make it up stairs to the second floor.  Our stairs go up half way to a landing that then turns 180 degrees to go up the rest of the way. This means we have to have a tall item on it's end and shimmy it "around the corner" to make it up the next flight.  Often there's not quite enough room to make a complete turn.  There's also a large mirror on the wall facing you.  For once in my life, I was smart enough to take down the mirror.  Thank God I did.  

With me at the top pulling, and Keri below pushing, we huffed the 250lb vanity up the first flight.  When we got to the top stair, there wasn't enough room for me to pull it up without getting smooshed between the vanity and the wall.  I made myself skinny enough to get it done, but not without a lot of fear that I was going to lose my grip and crush Keri underneath the vanity at the bottom of the stairs.  Thankfully that didn't happen.

The next challenge was to spin it around the corner to get the dolly against the next flight of stairs to lug it up. One small problem - it was too wide to make the turn.  We had to tip the vanity and lift the dolly at the same time in order to get one wheel of the dolly on the first stair.  This made it unstable when we tried to muscle both wheels up onto that first stair and BAM it smacked against the wall. Right where the mirror would have been!

One it was on that first stair, the rest was muscling up the last flight.  We managed and got it up there all by ourselves - "as usual."  I'm always so proud of my wife when she steps up and helps out like this.  She can do more work than most men I know.  Sure, there's limitations - we all have them.  But Keri is like my Mum and sisters.  They are all strong women who step up and just get the job done :)

Kids' Bathroom Progress

I've been bad about posting progress.  Here's some pics and a quick update.  This has been a slow moving project but it's nice not to be in a hurry; although it will be really nice to get the bathroom back.

I have new respect for tilers.  It's a craft and an art form - much like laying carpet.  I really struggled and got quite frustrated.  Lippage is where you have one tile sticking up higher or lower than the tile next to it.  The technique for spreading and troweling thin set takes practice. The tile isn't perfect, but it's pretty darn good for my first time laying tile this way.  The walls are the next challenge.  I learned a lot about mixing thin set properly (follow the instructions on the bag and measure the water vs. powder). 

I also used a product called Ditra for the uncoupling membrane.  It's also a learning curve to lay it down properly as it is also put down with thin set.  Having an even floor before laying it on top is a must!

Kiddos Bathroom Renovation

 We started on this project this past weekend.  Almost a complete gut job of the kid's bathroom.  New vanity, tile, toilet and fixtures coming soon.  As Ri would say "It's gonna be bougie!" Also added a can light above the shower that made a HUGE difference.  

Listing photo: it didn't look this good when I tore it out!

Before:

Current Status:

I'm back! Did you miss me?

The last post on this blog was almost 9 years ago.  Wow, how time flies!  In a moment of nostalgia, Keri dug up this blog last week and read most of the posts.  Riley also read all the posts and we realize how awesome this written record was of that period of our life.  The memories it invoked are priceless.  I'm reviving this as a journal and plan to post here as regularly as I can muster.

Another influence is that I quit Facebook.  I was a very late adopter of Facebook and I only joined because I felt I was missing out on a party.  Well, that party is awful so I left and I don't plan on going back.  If I get that feeling again, I will come back here to remind myself it's a bad idea.  The negativity and absolute idiocy of so many people added too much stress to my life.  I don't need that drama.  The one thing I miss are the "memories" that it presents to you every now and then.  I intend to recreate that single piece here so that I can capture those moments.

Here it goes!

Time To Clean Out The Fridge

Yesterday was Keri's birthday.  Unfortunately for her, it was pretty uneventful.  We even had to go grocery shopping last night.  Not exactly the best way to spend your birthday but hey, them's the breaks when you get older right?  $147, Contos dinner and a little bit of TV later we all went to bed around 9:30.  We followed the same routine we always do.  Put Romeo to bed, lights out, check the doors, etc, etc.  So imagine my surprise when I went downstairs this morning around 6:00 am and there was a light on.  Not a big deal right?  Unless you add to the mix that the refridgerator door was WIDE OPEN.  For a second, the thought crossed my mind, is there someone in my house?  Where's the barefoot bandit?  Isn't he still in jail?  The next thing that crossed my mind was RILEY!

I put a note on the door "don't eat anything in the fridge.  The door was wide open when I came down this morning" and headed off to work.  I waited patiently for my morning phone call.  When they called, Riley wanted to facetime with Daddy.  One of the first things I asked Keri was "have you been downstairs yet?" To which her respone was "no, why?  What happened." I waited until Riley was on facetime to break the news.  "Did you or Riley go downstairs last night to get something to eat?"  Keri replied, "yeah, Riley went down and got a yogurt."  I responded, "well, when I went down this morning the light was on and fridge was wide open!"  You can imagine how the rest of the conversation went.  Riley found it all quite amusing.  I did my best to explain that she needs to remember to close the fridge.  Keri swears she heard the fridge door slam.  To Riley's credit she probably did close it.  Only with the strength and delicacy of a bull in a china shop.  I think she slammed it so hard that it popped right back open.  Right behind her when she was running out of the kitchen.

Needless to say, almost the entire contents of our fridge was thrown out this morning.  Along with probably 50% of the $147 we spent last night.  Ain't kids fun?

Whoop Whoop

Whooping cough? Seriously? Wasn't that erradicated years ago. Nope! It's at epidemic levels in Snohomish County and unfortunatley Keri has it. Poor girl! We've been dumbfounded that she has it but have no choice but to deal with it now. It started with a nagging cough in the days before and through the snow storm. We went to the doc that Saturday and the first thing out of the doc's mouth was "it sounds like whooping cough." To which my response was "seriously? Didn't we erradicate that years ago? Don't our childhood immunizations protect us from that." To which she answered, "we used to think so but we're learning more. We've learned that you need booster shots every 10 years. There's an outbreak in Snohomish County." Wonderful...

To top it off, one of her first sentences after the whooping cough diagnosis was "this can be fatal to your baby." What? You don't tell an expectant mother and father that unless it's a legit thing to be concerned about. And even then, you break it gently. She followed it right up with "but you'll be fine and the baby will be fine. We'll treat it with antibiotics and it will be long gone by the time the baby arrives. It's also not transferrable in utero." Well, that's good news considering the fact that you just scared the $h*t out of us!

Poor Keri had to have two q-tips the size of chopstics shoved up her nose and into her brain cavity. They sent the chopsticks off to Spokane for analysis and it was confirmed that Wednesday that she has it. Phone calls from the Snohomish County Health district followed, etc. She's one of 41 cases in Snohomish County in January alone.

The good news is that we’ll all be ok. We’ve all been through the series of antibiotics. I was immunized in 2009 and again a couple of weeks ago. Riley is up to date on her immunizations as well. Keri will be immunized in the coming weeks and the baby will be fine.

With all that said, whooping cough (pertussis) is no joke. If you haven’t been immunized for whooping cough in the past ten years, go and get a shot! Tetanus shots now include whooping cough (DTaP – Diptheria, Tetanus and Pertussis). It’s at epidemic levels in Snohomish County. We had no idea it was still around and we found out the hard way. The epidemic can be prevented and is caused by individuals that choose not to immunize themselves and their children (damn Suburu driving, Crocs wearing, North Face vest sporting tree huggers! - sorry... i had to get that off my chest... I'm a wee bit bitter...)

If you’re at all interested, read here:

http://heraldnet.com/article/20120130/NEWS01/701309907
(Keri is one of the 41)

http://heraldnet.com/article/20120109/NEWS01/701099925
(A very sad story… since we live in Lake Stevens)

http://heraldnet.com/article/20120105/NEWS01/701059905
(One more just for good measure)


We hope this is the end of our string of bad luck. I’m a strong believer that bad things happen in three’s. Whooping cough is our third…

Keri is being a trooper but she's exhausted and weak. It's really taking a toll on her. It was wonderful and so much apprecaited for Judy to stay with us Sunday afternoon through Wednesday afternoon of last week (thanks so much Judy!!!). I'm taking the rest of this week off to care for Keri and attention-starved Riley. Riley and I really hope Mommy gets better soon!!!

BabyBoy

Keri, bless her heart, has a really tough go of it this pregnancy. It's not as if Riley was easy either. I'm so proud of her and the way she keeps plugging along - although it has been difficult at times. We had some scares early on, and it seems like something big and new comes up every month but Keri will keep plugging along, and I'll be right there at her side, until BabyBoy comes into this world.

We had our 'gender' ultrasound this past Friday. I have to admit that I was really anxious and nervous. I love my little girl with all my heart and I'm so blessed to have my gorgeous little angel but I'd be lieing if I said I haven't always wanted a son. As a matter of fact, Keri and I have always talked about having "one of each". Now we are blessed times two with a girl and a boy.

It's interesting that Riley was all.. girl, girl, girl for this first few months. She wanted nothing to do with a boy and would tell anyone that would listen the she "wasn't dealing with any willies. Daddy has to deal with the willy." She's told Dr. Dickey, nurses, and anyone else that would listen about the willy. When I explained to her that we don't get to choose and it might be a boy and I asked her what would we do with him he response was "throw him in the garbage." The thing is, she did a complete about-face a few weeks ago. She's been boy, boy, boy ever since. Because of my beliefs, it made me wonder if a little someone (Grandad?, Dad?)had whispered in her ear that she was gonna have a little brother and she better get used to it. Whatever it was, she changed her tune.

I thought I heard the ultrasound tech say, "well, it looks like you're going to have another..." For that split second, I knew we were having another girl. Then my eyes focused on the screen again and I saw what looked like an apple with a bump on it and I realized she said "it looks like you're going to have the other". A boy! Woo hoo! Riley and I were high fiving and hooting and hollering. Of course, all the calls and texts to family and friends followed. I finally got to tell Monty "well... we did it". He replied, "did what?" And I got to say, "we got you your grandson. Now you'll have someone to hand all of your guns down to." So without further adieu, here's the little man in all his glory.