This sums up my life right now pretty well:


Remember how I said "It should be signed off on tomorrow so that we can finish sheet rocking," yesterday? Well it did get signed off on, but we couldn't sheet rock because we ran into a little problem. Turns out when you upgrade almost all your water pipes, and get blasting awesome pressure piped in from the street the loan 20 feet or so that didn't get replaced turns on you. Well at least that's what happened to us. I so so so did not want anything to be cut into on the Ribbon Jar side of my basement, but yesterday evening when they went to turn back on the water the kitchen was out of luck. Yucky rock type deposits were all that wanted to come out. The old pipes were clashing with the lovely new water from the new pipes. It was determined that those pipes had to be replaced also. Lucky for us (and the plumber) I am an insane picture taker (ever noticed?). So I dug through my files to find this picture:


Besides being scary and showing what the basement looked like before (yucky walls, termite beams, holes in the ceiling!), it shows the positioning of the floor joists. Because I had this picture they were able to thread the flexible piping through without having to cut a huge chunk of the ceiling out. Obsessive picture taking saves the day again! Now the plumbing really is ready for cover (no, not totally done, we're getting a new water heater and the fixtures will have to be put on after tile and everything is done upstairs). So sheet rock hanging can begin again (in one section they have put up and pulled down twice). The water tastes freaking fantastic out of the tap. I don't know if it's the difference in pipes, or just knowing that we have ALL NEW PLUMBING in our house. Either way imagine me clinking a glass of cold water with yours and saying, "cheers to plumbing cover!"

Not that I'm complaining too much, I mean I have the sweetest neighbor who basically lets me waltz into her house whenever I have to pee (thank you Tracy for not making me use the porta potty). And this means things are getting done! Of course it looks fabulous in the yard:


Ugh, that's a project for the summer. As is this:


Yikes, and since we took away part of the fence separating us my neighbors get a good view of this too. Did I mention I have awesome neighbors? Things are going well up there:


Windows! Sheetrock! Tape! Fabulousness. It took a bit of trickiness to get all the angles for this area:


The two main corners were done with a rounded edge to minimize accidents down the road.


I think a good goal for this bathroom (the kid's) will be to get the ladder and leaves out of the tub before baby comes. 🙂

Things are going well downstairs also:


The Ribbon Jar side remains extremely cordoned off. But it is pouring out side so mud is everywhere else. The big hole in the front yard is because we just got new water service from the street. Yum, clean water. See then it was like, well it comes to here:


A new water shut off that actually works! So after this it joins back up with our old pipes in the house. For $300 it seemed stupid to pass up new pipes in the house, and that's what is going on down there now. It should be signed off on tomorrow so that we can finish sheet rocking. Oh and we came up with a solution to the pipes that can still be seen:


The left will look like a closet, but really just have that pump. The right will be cupboards on the bottom and then shelving up above. I think it will look really clean and nice. You know, once I can start making things clean and nice. Oh and this one is for Bj:


Our new range hood soon will not just be for looks! He is super excited about this (hey, me too). There is still one more step. And we might have to live with the electric range for a while (budget issues), but actual venting air over the stove? Genius!