Life in Color mixed-media collage banner with vibrant patterned stripes and stitched edges, abstract art design.
Celebrating crafts, kids and the everyday through photographs.
  • Better-1

    Ahhhh I feel so much better. I even waited yesterday to post about the fiasco hours after it happened and I was still so upset (as you might have read). This morning I had a talk with my builder and he was very apologetic and just wanted to make it right. I did end up letting him paint it. My mom came over as well and cleaned for 8 hours! If cleanliness is next to godliness surely she is an angel. Tomorrow I will get curtains back in the dining room, the table centered, put leaves in it and welcome my crew friends over for our annual holiday fun times. I can't wait. Thanks for all your lovely words, I definitely did have that break down coming, and I definitely did need that bath I took at my mom's this morning ๐Ÿ™‚

    7 comments on All I have to say is
  • Sometimes it's the little things and this afternoon I finally got the straw that broke my back.
     
    I had been down in the basement working when the guys came to clean up (at 3:30, not a long enough work day if you ask me). I had gotten one of them to put a second coat on the new wall down there in one spot, despite them saying that it didn't need a second coat. People paint almost always needs a second coat if you want it to look good. So the guy goes to clean out the paint tray and there is tons of paint in it and I can't see that just go to waste so I said, "give it to me" and whipped out one of my brushes. I touched up a bunch of spots that have been DRIVING ME CRAZY. Yes, I know, I shouldn't be painting. I could not help it, there was no way I was letting that paint go down the drain. So I'm working away, everyone is gone, I clean up and head upstairs to pee before finishing up with my orders. I walk right into this:
    Broke-1

    Notice anything wrong with the bathroom? Besides being super messy? Ya, it's the wrong color. The cupboards and the wall are the same color. Now mind you the painter only had to hit up one wall and patch a small section, but what does he do? He paints the whole freaking thing (minus some still taped sections. Now I ask you, how the hell do you keep painting when it is quite clearly NOT the right color?
    Paint-1

    Oh and see that white section? Ya, I guess he just decided not to paint that at all. I was fuming at this point so I called the builder and was like, "this is so NOT COOL. He left it a mess, he painted it the wrong color." I had to explain why. To be fair I did give the painter the wrong color. I had a bit of the can of the old stuff and took it to the paint shop to get more. They saw the color code but not the bit underneath that said, "30% of colorbook" So I gave the painter the bit left over, told him to use it first and then the new. BUT STILL, come on, they are not even close!!!! So the builder says, "get new paint, we'll fix it tomorrow." Meanwhile I still haven't peed because I don't even want to deal with trying to clean this up.

    So I start to sob, and sob, and sob, and sob some more. I call Bj and of course he doesn't answer his phone. But luckily my mom did, and though she could barely understand me until I calmed down (I was EXTREMELY worked up), she did manage to get out of me that it was a painting fiasco and said she would come tomorrow to help me. Which is awesome, because she paints so well (and not only is this painted the wrong color but it is done badly). So I called back up the builder and told him (I'll admit, through tears) that I didn't want the painter painting any more, my mom was going to do it. He said, no, no, he'd do it himself, but I refused, and told him I did not want them to paint. I want them to keep doing all the other stuff so we can get this remodel finished already (supposed to be done on Friday, so NOT going to be done).

    I keep crying, because hey pregnancy hormones, why stop now? And head to the paint store, puffy faced. Luckily they know me in there, so not so horrible. I explained what they had done, and wouldn't you know it they made me a new gallon for free (I was still sniffling, so the odds were in my favor here). I picked up a large Frozen Coke from Burger King and drove the rest of the way home with it sitting on my belly wallowing. The crazy thing is I had been doing great. Just yesterday the doctor told me I was, "an above average pregnant woman with a very healthy baby that weighs about six pounds." Today I felt like a below average human being caught in some kind of experimental hidden camera show.

    I did recover a bit when I got home and channeled my negative energy into a "I can do anything better than them anyway" mindset. I swept, followed that with vacuuming, and then actually got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed a big section of the Ribbon Jar floor. While I waited for all of that to dry I tore apart all the components on my desk, the cutting table, and under the ribbon racks; deep cleaned every morsel and put it back together. Then I got all the orders packed (I feel terrible but they were half done when I had to go to the paint store). I put covers on all the outlets and switches, and figured out how to get my phones plugged in again down there. Then when it was dry I got out the primmer and painted a section that my desk is supposed to sit on. I immediately cleaned up and got out of there (unfortunately unlike all the paint I'm using now, this is not low VOC).

    I'm not even sure what the moral of this story is supposed to be. I mean we are going thousands of dollars over budget with this water heater fiasco, but this bathroom thing, man it did me in. And yes I had caffeine, and then inhaled paint fumes, and am probably the worst mother ever. At least I didn't try and climb on something to get the shower rod back up. So if you see me tomorrow with a three day old blow out, please give me a little pity. Hey I guess it's a good thing it will be a couple more days before I get a mirror back in the bathroom.

    5 comments on What finally broke me
  • That was the sentence just yelled to me when I answered the phone. Yes, it was me, but not the Bonnie the super old caller was looking for. Anyway. House progress chugs along. Right now I have a couple of guys out my window working on putting in a new gas line. I'll get to why in a minute, but the thing annoying me now is that they are whistling. I do not like whistling, please if you meet me do not whistle around me. I would ask him to stop, but I've tried that with another worker and he was cold to me the whole rest of the day. So I've got my music up.

    This is the water heater story. A week or so ago the plumber came to install a new water heater for us, as the 40 gallon we have now would not be able to heat three bathrooms when you include the run from our lower level all the way up to the top floor. A much bigger water heater wouldn't work because it couldn't be much taller than the water heater we have now, due to a flu issue (it has to drop at a certain grade, it's in the basement and the area it's tucked into is short, so not much room to fall). So we went with a 50 gallon that did this high BTU thing where it could re-heat the whole tank in three minutes, sounded good to me. Turns out that even though it was just a little bigger it wouldn't work. So we went back to the original plan, which was to twin up a second 40 gallon of the same size (which is now not a standard size). They would work in tandem to get us all the hot water we needed.

    When I got home Tuesday from my diaper buying fun times there was a guy (that I had never seen before) up on top of a tall ladder with his head shoved into my chimney. I pulled up, got out of the car and said, "hey what's going on?" He said nothing to me, came down the chimney and went into the house. Um… So I followed him down to the lower level and said, "hey, what's going on?" They told me that the 6 inch flu liner they needed to put into the old flu (which is really just one half of the chimney, I didn't realize they it was split apart) wouldn't fit into our 6 inch flu. I asked them why they were even messing with it (our flu has been working fine), well when you go to mess with the flu at all (like connecting a new water heater) you have to bring the thing up to code (which is not terra cotta, the liner that is in there). They worked on it for hours but the terra cotta is broken, and even if it was in tact perfectly the size just would never work. Cue head explosion, what do you do then (and how expensive is the fix going to be)?

    A couple of options were presented to me. I immediately ruled out electric water heater, as we'd have to get our electrical updated because our box is maxed out and couldn't handle the big water heater we need. The second option was a thing called a power vent water heater. Still gas, but it has a thing on it that forces air out the a hole instead of just I guess the gasses automatically venting out. Okay, but since this is a basement we'd have to drill a big hole in the foundation and the vent would need to come out the front of the house, and couldn't have anything cover it. I'd really love a big hole on the front of my house blowing gas out when ever I used hot water, that would be so hot. NOT.

    The last option was a tankless water heater mounted outside. I have nothing against tankless water heaters, Bj, he's not such a fan. The problem is that it's not like we can just put up a tankless water heater. Because they are mostly off (and that's how they save energy), when they do come on in order to heat the water quickly and indefinitely they use a lot of gas all at once. This takes a bigger gas line. A one inch line (guess how big ours is? hint – not an inch). Plus water and electricity has to be ran there. In spite of all of that we decided to do the tankless. It is really the only viable option, and will save us money on gas bills. I've done lots of research on it now, and we're going to go with a Noritz, it has the best reviews out of everything I looked at. It seems the most important thing is calculated need/GPM and having new pipes (we do now). So I call up the plumber who is coming today to put it in and tell him that we decided on tankless and Noritz and he says, "oh that one is back ordered for two weeks."

    Blog, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!" And now that they have fiddled so much with our old 40 gallon my showers are running out of hot water… and I'm not even washing my hair! Le sigh.

    Really that's probably boring to all of you, but I had to write it down for prosperity's sake. Like when I blogged about the ginormous disaster of having to water-proof my basement. Because now it doesn't seem so bad, my "lower level" has never had an ounce of water in it, it smells so fresh and clean, never moist, and we use every inch of the space. So this too will seem good later, and I'll need to remember that I thought it was craziness and wanted to cry that now we can't get our stroller and fun ridiculous baby things. Of course I will be able to bathe the baby in warm water, so that's good. Plus how much can I really complain, it's going to rock up there!

    To make myself feel better Emilie and I made this last night:
    Piles-1

    Muddy Buddies.

    And I washed all the wipes Sciarrino and I made (okay mainly Sciarrino):
    Piles-2

    And I had the guys pop in the sink so I could see what it's going to look like in the bathroom:
    Piles-3

    pretty awesome. Now I just realized that it's cold in here because our gas must be turned off… and those guys left without saying anything. But I can't worry about that, I'm going to get a massage. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Life is good.

    7 comments on Hello?!?! Is that you?

archives

2 page layouts 8.5×11 layouts 12×12 layouts Alaska birthday birthday party brads canning Carmen Chloe crew girls dining room DIY elimination communication fair fall food front yard hair Halloween iPhone misting Montessori newborn nighttime night time oregon oregon coast oregon state fair organization painting painting with kids party portland punches ribbon salem Sciarrino scrapbooking sewing on scrapbooking Silhouette sleep toddler Tuesday tulips