At least, I think that's how I say "They came, they saw, they pulled it down" in Latin. It's been a long time.

Three nice men from the "House Doctors" came this morning and ripped out our rotting old deck / ADU roof thingie, with all the rotting railings and the bubbling, softened fiberglass paint, and everything else.

We are happy to find that underneath the 5+ layers of plywood, tar, moisture sealants, etc., the actual house's structure did not sustain any water damage. HOORAY (as Vivian would say)!

Two or three new layers of plywood and moisture sealant stuff are under a tarp, weighted down with long pieces of wood and ladders and tools, to cure overnight. Our parking area is filled with a small mountain of debris, which will be hauled away tomorrow.

More layers will go down tomorrow and possibly Thursday, with the new railing supposed to happen on Friday.

The bid didn't include sealing the cedar railings, but clearly that needs to happen. I will call the House Doctors office and see if I can add that to the bid, or whether I need to attempt to summon a work party for this weekend. :-O

I am also disheartened to learn that we have "moisture ants" in our bathroom, and that they are a problem. Before, I just thought that those tiny little brown ants appeared in the spring and fall in everyone's home, and there was nothing to do but put out ant traps. Now, I am told that these are moisture ants, which are eating our walls from the inside, and the only thing to do is to find the hole in the house where the moisture is coming in, and plug that hole. Whereupon the moisture ants will die and go away and all will be happy again.

Moisture ants? Is that just something that contractors tell naive homeowners like me? I liked the old days better, when I simply put out ant traps twice a year and thought no more about it.

On Tuesday, the "House Doctors" are going to come fix our deck.

They're going to rip up the old, weird thick fiberglass paint and the plywood layer beneath it, take out the railings, repair a damaged patch of siding on the ADU ("Accessory Dwelling Unit," or "mother-in-law apartment" downstairs), and put in new railings and roofing.

All in one day.

I hope that (1) tatterdamelion is recovered and back at work by Tuesday, and so will not be inconvenienced by people working on his dining room roof, (2) the weather is nice, (3) they don't find anything more that needs to be taken care of.

Then I'll finally feel safe letting Vivian run around on the deck, come warmer weather. Perhaps once I put baby gates in at each end...

Next Project to deal with before summer comes: Railings for the stairs.

Well, Rachel's big party last night ended up going well despite a slow start and too few people to really play the game she had devised. Eventually a couple more people showed up and the evening ended with everyone laughing and making witty comments to each other, so I call that a win.

If things go well, the kitchen cabinets will be installed today, and that will be the end of Ari and Rachel's kitchen storage problems. Then they will be able to move their things downstairs again, and I will be able to start locking the door up to our space again. All this time, it's just made me so uncomfortable to know that when I'm gone my space is unlocked... even if only from the basement. I guess I'm just paranoid, or private.

Another beautiful morning! I'm typing and looking out through our dining room window, and I can see the Olympic mountains lit up in the dawn's light, and the little strip of Puget Sound that is "ours." We didn't look for a house with a view, but since we have one, I'm continually surprised by how much it comforts and pleases me to have one.

I guess as a good crabby Cancerian, I need to see water somewhere around. Now, the mountains? It's anyone's guess why I love those so much.

Now that my little potted lemon tree has laboriously fruited, it seems to be losing leaves -- it's lost three in the past week. I'm not doing anything different, so perhaps this is part of its natural cycle? I notice that tiny new leaf buds are forming on the tips of the stems, so I don't think it's dying. (I hope. Since we got it as a wedding present, that would be a not-so-good omen!)

The downstairs kitchen was successfully painted on Saturday -- thanks to five friends who came over in shifts and made it all happen. I fed the morning shift coffee and doughnuts, and the afternoon shift chicken and mushroom casserole.

I'm so lucky to have good friends like these!

I'm also very proud of myself. Often when I see non-perishable food items on deep sale I get them "for later." When is this mythical "later"? I realized I didn't even know what I had.

So, painting did not happen on Thursday -- but it will happen tomorrow. I have primer, paint, rollers, roller pans, roller pan liners, paintbrushes -- and 6 friends coming over in shifts.

It will happen.

Then another week and the upper cabinets will FINALLY be in -- and then the kitchen project will FINALLY be over!!!

Next project: Getting our new (used) car checked out by a mechanic to make sure it's safe to drive... (Thanks again,

scifisy!)

 

If I can get painting supplies together tonight, and if a friend comes to help Andrew tomorrow, the downstairs kitchen may be painted tomorrow.

There's not that much to do: Take down the one upper cabinet that was installed, prime the ceiling and walls, let dry, paint the ceiling and walls, let dry, second coat of paint, let dry. Maybe even put up that one upper cabinet again (since it will be over a week before the contactor has time to install all the other ones as well).

I always thought that pregnancy would be a quiet time in which I could silently glow with upcoming motherhood and spend hours at a time communing with my stomach. Turns out I'm scrambling to get everything done, just as usual -- only now I have less energy, I move more slowly, and I can't lift heavy things.

It's true that I do spend whole minutes each day just zoning out, wondering what our child will be like in 5, 10, 15, 20 years. I wish I could spend more time communing and daydreaming, and less time coordinating and scheduling.

Busy week. As usual.

The downstairs kitchen is STILL not done -- the last upper cabinet is still in transit, and our contractor won't have time to install it until early February. But at least Ari and Rachel have running water, a fridge, a stove, a dishwasher, and bottom cabinets.

Next up: Painting the ceiling and walls (oh joy...). I want to stay as far out of it as possible because of the paint fumes... which I never enjoy anyway... and right now baby's brain folds are forming, so I'm using that as an excuse to chicken out of having to smell anything really strong and nasty.

OK, I haven't posted about the kitchen saga in awhile. Here's the update...

Our friend John and his fiancee Lupa have been acting as our general contractors. They've poured so much time, energy, blood sweat and tears into this project that we will never be able to repay them with merely the money we owe them. We would need to find a month of their lives to give back to them.