Snow football

My niece, Madeleine, is here for the weekend.  She and Dave were lamenting that she wasn't here over Christmas for the good football game then.  So, they wanted to get out there and play this weekend.  Despite the snow on the ground, we headed to the middle school to play a family game.  Luckily, I got to remain on my feet as the game photo and videographer.  Here are some of the highlights.

I'm pretty sure this is pass interference, but we'll allow it because of the size mismatch.

Looks like he got his revenge!

Madeleine went all out.  She ended up on the ground a lot!

 I was also playing with my new camera to try to get some shots of the kids.

Of course, a big snowball fight broke out.  

Zack received a snow earplug.  He was none too happy.

The gang of kids.  Aren't they cute!

Down to the subfloor...

Well, the last two days have been grueling work, but we've accomplished everything we wanted to. Removing the vanities proved more difficult than expected.

I removed the shut-off valves and cut the drain pipe. But, on the left vanity cabinet, they have the water coming in through the floor and the drain pipe out the back. I didn't want to cut either one of them too short and cause a problem for the plumber. But, I did need to pick one to cut (or cut the cabinet) or that cabinet was not coming out. I cut the drain pipe and hopefully, it will not be problem for the plumber.

Rachel and I installed new shut-off valves for each of the sinks. She enjoyed being able to do that. And, at the end of yesterday, everything was off the floor. It's a nice feeling.

Today started with a tougher task - removing the linoleum. That is always a pain, and today was no different. It was back straining work for me to pull up those sheets of wood with linoleum on them. But, after a couple hours, I had it all up. Luckily, I convinced Rachel that pulling up all the staples, like hundreds of them, would be fun. She was enjoying that long after her bedtime. I was reluctant to make her quit. Fewer for me in the morning sounds wonderful!

But, as you can see the bathroom is quite empty. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for our bedroom! (Note: the vanity cabinets have now been moved to the front porch for pickup, but still....)

Day 3

Church and football put a dent in the time I had available today. But, I needed to make good use of having Dave to help. So, we took down the big mirror. We're hoping to repurpose it by cutting it into two smaller mirrors and building frames around them. Of course, when we pulled the mirror off the wall, we found a chunk of drywall missing with exposed pipes. Not really sure what that was for and not really looking forward to yet another drywall patch to do.

Then, we began to tackle the vanity. I'm pretty sure every plumber that I have ever had here has been on the stereotypically large size. Every time I do plumbing work, though, I wonder how they manage. Fitting inside the small door of the vanity on my back reaching up between pipes and the sink to get to the tiny nuts holding on the faucet is quite a challenge. How a fat person does it is really baffling to me.

We had hoped to donate the vanity cabinets and the top to Habitat for Humanity's ReStore, but Dave and I had a very difficult time getting the top off. The glue was holding tight and the double vanity top was pretty heavy. In the end, we decided that we would need to call in reinforcements, so we smashed it. Unfortunately, Dave tackled that when I wasn't up there with camera in hand. It made quite a loud crash from where I was a floor below.

It would be so nice if I could just pull out the cabinets and put them outside to be picked up. But, no, I'm going to need to disconnect the water so I can remove the shut-off valves, move the vanities and them reinstall the shut-off valves. It all seems so simple in theory, but each step takes longer than expected. But, I should be able to get that done tomorrow and probably get the toilet out as well.

So, I'm hoping that tomorrow we will have an empty bathroom. Fingers crossed - don't hold me to it, though, because I've also got to volunteer in class, get the kids from school, help with homework, cook dinner, etc. Hopefully, I can talk one of the kids into helping me with the plumbing tomorrow. I like teaching the skills that I've learned so that one day, my kids will feel comfortable to tackle these projects themselves if they so desire.

Day 2

So, day 2 gave me a helper, which I desperately needed for today's to-do list. Main objective - remove the bathtub. Easier said then done, for sure!

Removing the framing around the tub would have been much easier with a Sawzall, but we had to make do with a crow bar and hammer. It was definitely a challenge that provided a good workout for our arms.

We worked together and finally got the frame up and began to tackle the tub. Once again, not as easy as expected. The faucet pipe must have been built after installation of the tub. The pipe had a washer that could not be removed to allow the pipe to be removed through the hole. It required us to cut the copper pipe. Not a big deal since it has to be moved anyway, but an annoyance nonetheless.

Then, the big obstacle - the tub drain! We had this problem with the kids' bathtub as well. The metal part of the drain screws into the pipe. But, it is so tight and we just don't have the right tool to unscrew it. In the kids' bath, we were able to get it with WD40 and some elbow grease. But, we just could not get ours. Eventually, we took another approach - cut the drain pipe from underneath. An hour later or so, but we finally got the tub detached and out of there.

Whew! Day 2 done. A lot of work getting all the debris off the floors and walls and out to the trash. But, we have a much emptier bathroom! Good results. Overall I'm very happy. Our goal - get the demo 100% done by Wednesday when the cleaning ladies come to clean up the mess we're tracking all over the house! Maybe they'll need a bonus this week.

And, so it begins....

Renovation of our master bath has truly begun! We've had a lot of setbacks already. Contractors don't come as scheduled or never send us a bid. We've struggled to pick out all the pieces we need to complete the bathroom. But, eventually, I decided to be my own general contractor, but we're hiring out plumbing, electrical and tiling.

So, step one is to demo the whole bath. As we have already received our vanity (and it's crowding our bedroom) and the bathtub should be here shortly, I figured it was time to go.

The Before:

Rachel and Alex were excited to help me. We took off the shower head and shower doors. Then, the fun began - smashing the tiles!

But, that wore off quick. This is where they left me for the day. They were tired and their arms were sore. Wimps!

Dave was at work, so I was on my own. But, I managed to clear all the tiles from the shower area and get up the shower pan. Unfortunately, we found a wonderful nest of ants behind the shower. After grossing out Rachel with them and them sucking them up with the ShopVac, I finished with only minor issues. Overall a successful day!

The end of day 1!

Graham Cracker Houses

Every Christmas season, we make a gingerbread house. I usually buy one from Costco, which comes with everything in one box. The problem is the gingerbread is not all that yummy, so it pretty much goes uneaten. Dave wanted to make graham cracker houses instead, just like his mom does. Immediately, Rachel loved the idea because she could do it all the way that she wanted. This, apparently, got Alex's brain moving to figure out how he would do his. He came up with the idea of a football field. So, we were in search of candy that could somehow represent the parts of a football field. Then, Zack needed to do something sports related and settled on a soccer field, just to be slightly different from his older brother. Matthew was just happy to throw some candy on his house and probably in his mouth when I wasn't paying too much attention.

Unfortunately, the first two batches of frosting that I made were not quite right, so I was stuck creating another batch and then helping Rachel fix her 3 story hotel that kept falling down. That's right - Rachel set out to build a 3-story hotel with a hot tub - out of graham crackers! I think a little patience would have done her well, but if you know her at all, you know that she's lacking a little in that. After the boys were long done, and I had delayed dinner by an hour or so, I made the frosting using a different recipe and got the consistency we needed to build Rachel's hotel. We even died some frosting blue to fix the hot tub with water.

Dave, of course, produced his own little house that looked perfect. I think the kids respected the beauty of his simple house, but I don't think any of them regretted their choice of construction - despite the fact that none of them turned out as well as they had envisioned. At least, no one can claim that my children are not creative.

Of course, a couple bites here and there were about all that was eaten. The rest was thrown away, exactly the way the simple gingerbread house in a box has been done every other year. We'll see what the kids ask for next year!

Matthew had no plan. Just throw candy and crackers on a tray.

He did make this cute robot, though. I just discovered this on the table at some point. I was surprised to find out that Matthew had made him.

Zack's soccer field - I can barely even tell what all the parts are because he couldn't edit himself. He has a bench with players on it and a scoreboard as well.

Alex's football field. He came home and printed out a picture of the Atlanta Falcons' field. But, then, he thought it looked too complicated to make the falcon. So, he decided on the Colts. But, he was truly underestimating how difficult it would be to make an accurate field with candy. He only made 1/2 the field because he ran out of space, and I don't think he ever got to decorating the endzone. And, he definitely never made the goalposts that he had planned.

The failed attempt at the hotel. It kept collapsing slowly until it just became one huge pile of rubble. You can see the remains of the hot tub in this one, though.

The hotel #2 - much better.

Dave's simple, yet stylish house.

Halloween

The whole gang!

We had a pretty low-key Halloween. Rachel had a friend over, and the boys trick-or-treated with a kid down the street. This was the first time in many years that I dressed up at all. Rachel had asked me at Target what Daddy and I were going to be. We saw the Ghostbusters costume for Dave, and I couldn't resist buying it. I went for a simple kitty cat. It was kind of fun!

Rachel squared

"Star Wars character with gun", Captain America, and Harry Potter