Taming the Wilderness

Saturday GR cut down the last of the trees in the field.  It's taken three Saturday's in total to get the job done.  Two were dead, and the other two were in the way of his annual fireworks display.  Because he was trying to get two trees down in a single day, he asked four friends to help with the project.  Five men, three chain saws, two trees.  It was a massive undertaking, that took two hours longer than they expected, but they got the job done and we will be forever grateful.  The trees were all cut into logs and stacked in the woods for winter firewood.   Apparently there is a lot of wood stacked back there ... stacked in six different locations.

If you don't remember what it looked like before.  Take a look at the last picture of this post from April, it's taken from about the same spot in the yard.

While the men were taking down trees, I tackled the garden with one of our young women and two of the children who came with their dads.  We too had a massive job.  In a few short days, the weeds had gone crazy and the garden looked like a jungle.  We filled our compost bin with 1/3 of the weeds and filled the wheel barrow with the other 2/3s.  It was an impressive pile.  After we uncovered all the plants, and I moved a few around to keep them from being crowded out and help to encourage them to grow. 

Sadly, we ripped out all of our broccoli.  It was a dismal crop ... we grew beautiful foliage, nearly 2 foot tall plants with no flowers ... nothing, not a single sign of flowers at all.  So out they went and in went some of my volunteer tomatoes from last years crop, and a couple extra green peppers we started from seed.  I have a half dozen or so more volunteer tomatoes that I will likely move into some of my back flower beds to give them space to grow and fill in areas that need plants. 

We've been working hard to get all the flower beds cleaned out of weeds.  I spent much of the Spring moving plants around and weeding.  Unfortunately, once I'd get a spot cleared of weeds, and move on to another spot, a second crop of weeds would emerge.  We've enlisted friends, young women and boy scouts in our full on weed war and we're finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel in the front yard.  Today two boy scouts and one very dedicated mother finished getting the last of the weeds out of the front beds!

Ashley, the mother of one of the boys, told me about PREEN.  They use it on Temple Square.  It's a weed preventor, not killer, so I'll likely need to use it in combination with my Round-up, but I'm not kidding when I say this single product may be an answer to prayer and keep me out of the loony bin.  It's suppose to prevent weeds for up to 4 months!  This coupled with the 10 cubic yards of mulch that was delivered 10 days ago, and we might have a fighting chance at keeping up with at least the front yard.  We thought 10 would be plenty, we've spread at least half if not more, and we've covered about that much of the front yard.  No where near the entire yard.  So we're now hoping it will be enough to mulch the front and south side of the house.  Tomorrow I'll order a second load to take care of the play area and backyard beds.  

Dandelion War

Word on the street is my east coast nieces don't know what dandelions are.  *sigh*  I wish I could say the same thing.  The heel of my right hand is so sore thanks to pulling buckets and buckets of dandelions with a dandelion fork.  While I pulled dandelions, the kids played in the yard, collecting dandelions and watching Grandpa and a neighbor flatten the large mounds dirt in the south end of the yard left behind by the geothermal system instillation.

Snapshots

GR and I went to the Chief's game last night ... our one non-Sunday game of the season.  We were very excited to go for a MONDAY night game, and had grand plans for our evening.  Sadly none of them really came to be, an unexpected highway closure made caused it to take over two hours to make the two mile trek to the stadium entrance [considering where we parked, we'd have been better off parking on the highway and walking] and walked in right at kick-off time, about the same time the rain started [the rain that wasn't suppose to start until 2am].  Our seats are situated such that the back half of you stays dry, and if the wind cooperates, you won't get soaked if you stay standing and lean back.  We had a blast and never once considered leaving early, thanks to the Chief's winning over the Charges, 21-14.  BTW, the second touchdown ... caught by our friends (with the apples and the cows) nephew ... so proud!  It was a great night with friends who were such troopers in the chilly rain.  We made it back in around 2am, [the above picture taken right as the game ended!] sending Grandma and Grandpa to bed, and shedding our damp cloths for warm pjs.  


GR ended up taking the day off today.  Anna and I went to her little music class this morning and then shopping at Target ... LOVE their new toddler clothes!  GR and Alex went to lunch and then GR installed a new leaf catcher to help us keep up with all the walnut leaves.  I went out to get the scoop on how to clean out the catcher and Anna followed.  As soon as she saw GR's feet in, she quickly and quietly took off her shoes and socks, and got in with him ...

The New Resident

It seams my friends, that we have a new house guest. Meet Oscar, he lives under our deck and we are pretty sure he is a groundhog.


Oscar comes out when the yard is quiet ... he drinks from the little creek that goes around the deck, he eats grass and weeds from the yard, and then of course he poops in places I'd rather he not poop. But it's super fun to watch him stand up on his hind legs and look around the yard ... so far that's making up for the poop in the flower beds and planters.

When I asked GR, what my chances were for potty training a groundhog, he wasn't too encouraging, and offered to have someone trap it. I'm not there, yet. So far, it seems "he" is following the house rules and as long as he follows the rules ... don't damage the property, play nicely, don't poop around the house (he has a grace period, but I'm not sure I'm willing to give him the same period of time we've given Alexander ... a year's a long time), etc., he can stay, otherwise we'll issue an eviction notice.

I'm not sure how long he's lived under our deck, but we just recently noticed him. Our first introduction was on Rebecca's birthday -- it had pooped in one of my planters on the upper deck ... right on top of a sweet pea plant.

This picture was taken through the kitchen window. He's about 30+ feet from the house, just past the little line of trees that goes long the lower deck. I've tried to get closer, but every time I've gone so far as to unlatch the back door, he's shot back under the deck.

My new country life:

We're ticking items off our list to prep for closing on this house April 20th. Wednesday was the home inspection, Monday will be the appraisal. Any guesses on what they did today?

A Little Known Fact

.... that is, I think it's a little known fact ... I guess we'll have to see.

One of the perks of buying Grandma and Grandpa's house is having access to the shed. The shed houses all of Bob's wood working equipment. Bob couldn't take them with him, so we're looking after them, providing them a good home, and when he needs something, he shows up and uses or takes what ever he needs for the project of the day.

Like most guys who went to a small high school, GR took shop. He really enjoyed it and had a shop teacher that would let the kids make whatever they wanted. So after the first standard project, he started making other things; a set of nesting elephants for his mother, a rocking horse, a bench with storage under the seat. Since high school, he's done small projects here and there for church or scouts or the fireworks or to help Bob with a home improvement project, but hasn't really been able to do hard core projects because he hasn't had easy access to the tools like he does now. Now that he sleeps 30 feet from them, a whole new world is opening up ... that and the discovery of this blog back in January!

Just before we moved, we cashed in every single credit card point we had a crewed over the last decade or more, for Best Buy gift cards, and finally purchased a big flat TV with every single one of those points. It got delivered the weekend we moved in. After watching a couple of shows, we realized a table or console of some kind under the TV would be smart to help little kids, their hands and their toys at a distance, otherwise, we were going to have a problem. We looked at Target and Walmart, even Craigslist, and found some suitable options, but in almost every case they were expensive for what you were getting. And so we figured we could totally make our own, and settled on these plans.

It took a series of nights over two weeks to complete it ... it was all GR. I did nothing, but make sure sleeping children didn't wake up, admire his handy work, console him when he pointed out mistakes, and of course, click pictures so I could brag on him. I'm not sure exactly how people are able to put this thing together in an evening or two?! But we are both so pleased with how it turned out and are already planning future projects!




So there you have it, a little known fact, my husband can build stuff from scratch!

Contract Pending

Yesterday the Realtor called with TWO offers on the house. Both offers were for about the same ... less than the asking price, $$$ for closing costs, closing dates in May and one wanted home insurance. I have to say this was discouraging, that we got two offers wasn't discouraging, but that they were asking for SO much. We worked so hard on that house, putting a lot of time and money in it, and then we were very careful in how we priced it. We did not over price the home because of the work we put into it. We priced it dead on, to sell quickly, and yet no one has offered full price, and everyone is asking US to pay for lots of additional costs.

Our Realtor told us not to feel like we had to settle. Counter with what was best for us. And so we countered, and countered hard to both parties telling them whoever responded first would get the contract. We countered with full price, 1/2 their request for closing costs, no home insurance, and upped the closing date to April 1st. Very quickly we got an acceptance to our terms and last night we signed the papers to make it official!!

What a blessing. The house is going to a really nice couple from NE with three boys. They are all older (college aged) which I'm sad about (really changes the dynamics of that little end of our street), but hopefully that will mean grandchildren in the coming years.

* * * * *

Some of you asked if I had before pictures of the house ... I don't really, other than pictures we've taken of the kids in the house. You should be able to just browse through the blog to find pictures of the 2 red accent walls in the dining room, the pale sun yellow on the rest of the walls on the main floor, the horrid gray carpeting, the bluish gray tile in the entry way and around the fireplace, the old whitish cream counter tops in the kitchen and the white, stained cream vinyl flooring in the kitchen. It was a cute house, that was well loved and worn by out little family that nearly doubled in our 7 years there.

* * * * *

Yesterday afternoon Alexander christened the new house with our first accident. The kids were playing a rousing game of hide and seek in my bedroom. All of a sudden Alex comes running to me in the kitchen holding his palm and screaming. He had tripped and his hand ran down the edge of an unfinished square of colored glass used in stained glass work. It had been left behind by Grandma and Grandpa, and not knowing if they needed it or intended it for something specific, I moved it out of the general path of daily activity until I could ask and "deal with it." The glass did not break, it was not jagged, but the cut was deep and ugly (be grateful I didn't photograph it - :).

Poor kid, he wasn't doing anything wrong, he wasn't being silly or making poor decisions, he just tripped, and his hand touched the wrong then when trying to brace his fall. Thankfully, there wasn't a lot of blood! Monday night we couldn't tell if it needed stitches or not, so clean it, and bandage it ourselves ... this morning when GR was helping Alex get ready and the cut broke open and started bleeding again. GR took him to work for a couple of stitches to keep the skin flaps together, and insure the cut would heal correctly. Anna and I were right behind him, meeting up with them at the ER just before the stitches. He was so brave!

So his left hand (his dominate hand) is pretty thoroughly bandaged in an effort to keep the stitches covered and clean, nearly impossible when you're a 3.5 year old who now lives in the land of mud and shovels. We also discovered a good sized wart on his right pinky during all of this yesterday. So like his left hand, his pinky is also bandaged ... it all looks so much worse than it really is! He's getting lots of sympathy from people at the store!

ETA 4/6: Alex's hand took a while, but it's finally healed. We had the stitches taken out a week later during Sam's quarterly ENT check-up. It still wasn't completely healed, but the skin was getting irritated by the stitches, so they definitely had to come out. We kept it bandaged for an additional week using the sticky ace bandage type stuff -- that is fantastic stuff! So wish we'd had something like that with the stitches. Instead we were using masking tape - such a nuance for Alex and after a week, it started to really irritate his skin. The other stuff is now permanently in our first aid kit! The wart ... well we're going to start a second round of treatment. We didn't get all of it the first time, so it's come back.

And the closure on the green house went off without a hitch on Friday!! GR's had a couple of conversations with the couple who bought the house and really likes them ... so much so he invited them to Easter dinner. They ended up declining, but it feels good knowing we're passing on that home to good people.

Open House & Virtual Tour

Our open house got pushed a week. The window instillation was delayed thanks to a myriad of issues. And there was a lot of clean up work to be done once all the work crews finished up inside and out. So we waited a week. Sunday I called my mother to see if she could come stay a couple days while I cleaned the old house. Miracles of miracles she was able to arrange her schedule such that she could come. I spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday at the house, late into the night, cleaning. Every wood surface in that house got rubbed down with Old English. It did wonders for repairing the scratches that the baseboards and mantel suffered during the remodel and before. So after many, many long hours and more elbow grease than I thought I had to give, Thursday the house went on the market and we had our Realtor open house. The response from the dozen or more Realtors who walked through, was really favorable.

Mom and GR (and a couple neighbors who came to the open house) are the only ones who have seen the "improved, depersonalized" inside of the house, so I've created a slide show of picture so you can see all the changes. I didn't photograph the basement ... it's no longer deep blue, but the same color as the bedrooms, and the floor got painted the same color as the coffered ceiling in the master bedroom (which is also the same color as the far wall (garage wall) of the dining room. It looks really nice with the bright white wood work down there.



Saturday afternoon we had a public open house, and again the response was favorable. A couple minor things that needed to be addressed, but they are simple fixes. There were lots of open houses in the neighborhood so we had more than a dozen interested parties walk through! Apparently of the 8-9 comps in town, ours is by far the best house for the price.

We know of one very interested family who came Friday, and spent an additional 45 minutes at the house Saturday. We'll see how this shakes out. We did have an offer after the open house ... it's rather telling when your Realtor closes his conversation with you that you have an offer on your house, instead of leading with that bit of information. Needless to say, we rejected it out right and didn't even bother to counter.

Mom had a cute story about Alex from her week with us. One night when he was sad that he couldn't say goodnight to us, mom told him that we were at the old house working really hard to get it ready to sell so a good family could purchase it. Alex looked at her and said, "Grammy, WE could buy it!!"

It's going to take a while for the kids to see Grandma's house as our house and home.

Starting to Settle in

We are successfully moved in! It's bitterly cold and snowed all day Friday. But we (and more than half a dozen friends) managed to move a load of furniture Friday night and then again Saturday morning too. I'm so glad we had the kids go to St. Louis. Friday night after the first load of furniture went, we started dismantling the bunk beds to make Saturday morning go more smoothly. That really helped. By the time the kids got home Sunday evening, we had their rooms put together. Kathy spent hours here on Saturday, helping me get the kitchen unpacked. And now is fully functional!

I keep moving furniture around, from room to room, spot to spot. And there are an insane number of boxes in our corner of the basement. We'll continue to chip away at them box by box, week by week.

Work on the old house started on Monday. There are a lot of work men there, and I'm stopping in each morning after I drop the kids at school, to take a look at the progress. We're making a lot of cosmetic changes. When it's all done, it's going to look so different. Hopefully that will help me walk away from this house without too many tears.

When our real estate agent walked through back in November, he said, buyers don't want to do anything. Gone are the days when you can provide a carpeting or paint allowance, or even drop the price. They want the ultimate move in ready home. Our house had none of that. The carpeting needed to be replaced years ago. The kitchen floor ... well you remember. And then there are all the beautiful painting projects we've done in the kids bedrooms and in the dining room and basement. Apparently, rose pink, cornflower blue checks, confederate red, and deep ocean blue aren't huge selling points. I'm going to miss those walls!

We need the house to sell fast, we can't afford to let the house sit for a long period of time. So we're having the carpeting replaced, the kitchen floor & counter top replaced, the tile around the fireplace replaced (thanks to a chipped tile), and the entire house painted four different shades of beige. Unfortunately for us, the windows are horrific and poorly constructed (most of the small pieces that allow the window to open to the inside to be cleaned have broken) we're replacing those too. We're praying that this investment will pay off when the house goes on the market next week.

Twins & Moving Week

Tuesday morning was my day to teach preschool. As luck would have it, I had zero voice. Whispering was a bit of a stretch. Mom was here and had a voice and that was a good thing. This same thing happened to me in December the last time it was my turn to teach ... typically this only happens once a year. Sunday night a little tickle in my throat started and by Monday morning my voice was completely gone.

My little preschool group is a lot of fun. Today we talked about 'Where we Live' which worked out perfectly because Kansas Day was just a couple of days ago. We did some crafts, read a story or two and talked and played with the doll house. When Alex's good friend showed up for preschool wearing a new shirt and brown pants, Alex exclaimed, "I have that shirt!" and ran up stairs. 2 minutes later he came down stairs wearing his matching shirt and a pair of brown pants so he and his friend could match! They thought that was just the greatest thing and "posed" for pictures at the end of class:


Update on Mom and the Moving process continues ... Monday Mom felt so much better. Not up for running a marathon, but well enough to take care of Alex and Anna so I could move boxes for Bob and Diane. Bob, Brent and I took 9 truck/van loads of boxes on Monday. Tuesday, they moved more boxes, but I was only able to help in the afternoon after preschool and before the big kids got out of school. Tuesday night GR and I, with the help of good friends who heeded our desperate call for able bodied men, came and helped us move all of Bob and Diane's furniture out of "the farm house" and into the "townhouse." We started at 6pm and finished at 11pm, taking two loads. Today my whole body aches. My visiting teacher talked me into letting people bring us dinner tonight. To lesson the burden on any one sister, three sisters are bringing a different element tonight. I'm grateful she finally convinced me to accept that offer of help - everything is packed. Tomorrow, as soon as the kids are done with school, they are heading to St. Louis with my Mom in our van to spend the weekend with my Dad while we move all the furniture and set up their bedrooms.
[Anna now knows exactly what to do with a box at every stage - assembly, packing, and lifting. Her Grandpa would be so proud!]

In other news, I have a new calling. I'm sad to be saying good-bye to my primary councilor responsibilities which I've only had since April, and will sorely miss working so closely with the children and their dedicated teachers. But as it is with all new callings, I'm excited and looking forward to being back in Relief Society working so closely with our new president as her first councilor. Although it hasn't been very long since I was released from serving in my stake Relief Society calling, there is still lots to learn and do, and we're looking forward to the challenge and to working with the great sisters in our ward.

Making Do & a How To

There is an art to making do. Some do it well, and others ... well they just don't. Some can decorate their houses to look like the pages of magazines with thrift & junk store finds, throw in a few key pieces from the want ads and accessories with curb side finds. Others, try and ... well, it looks like it. I am definitely a "make do-er" and probably fall somewhere in the middle, leaning well toward those who look like they "make do."

What I love is usually too expensive, and so I make do with what I have, find or can afford. Our dining room furniture is the dining room furniture GR grew up using. It's the set his parents purchased when they got married in the early 70s. When his Mom and Bob moved to Kansas (shortly after we moved into this house 7.5 years ago), they no longer had room for the set, and it became ours. Honestly, I didn't love it, it was not something I would have picked for myself. It is very 1970s, has only 4 ladder back chairs, and the wood is very, very dark.

We had plans to replace it, but the money was always needed for something else, and so we made do.

Last year when the heavy paper twine used to weave the rush seats of the ladder back chairs started to break and the seats give out from nearly 40 years of use, again we went shopping. Knowing that we wouldn't stay in this home forever, knowing we would eventually have a little more space for a table and chairs, we opted not to replace the entire set and just replace the needed chairs. I found great chairs that instantly updated the look of the table at World Market, on clearance for $90/chair. Not the bargain I typically go for, but all the other chair options I found were either $50 and would have snapped in half 3 months later, or were $150. These are solid, heavy, sturdy chairs that can withstand the everyday use they get in our house.

GR really had hoped to get rid of this set before we move. We tried giving it away, but the set really wasn't the right size for their family. So last week GR listed the entire set on Craigslist ... the hutch, 6 chairs and the table. We had one inquiry ... and really, I don't blame them. The picture was terrible, and the condition of the table, not so great either - would you pay $100 for this table? Neither will anyone else.

The big white spot in the center came from setting a hot pan on the table without using a sufficient hot pad. The tan marks near the end of the table came from me using my ironing mat on the table and steaming the pad to the table finish - dumb. Add to that all the scratches, etches and dings in the top of the table, and you have yourself one very distressed family dinner table in need of some tlc.

I did a google search to see if there was any way to remove the white mark, and found a great YouTube video (I can't find the exact one now, but there are lots out there). Turns out you can easily remove the majority of the white marks left by heat or water using a t-shirt and dry iron. See:

It took a couple of swipes with the iron, but it's gone! Amazing. I love google and all the resources people have put out there!

As for the tan rough marks left behind by my dumb ironing project a couple years ago ... I figured I didn't have much to loose, and tackled it with a green scrubby. I would have used a fine steel wool, but I didn't have any and this did the trick. With a lot of elbow grease I was able to improve it immensely. It's by no means perfect, but much improved.

With no takers on the furniture, it looks like they'll be coming with us to the new house. And we'll put them to good use. The hutch will get used in the craft room and hold all the kids craft supplies. Eventually, I hope to give it a fun coat of paint too. The table and chairs we'll continue to use until Anna is out of her high chair. Then it will probably get moved to the basement for use as a game table for when the kids get older and have more friends over. Until then we'll start hiding a bit of money away here and there so we can purchase my handmade Amish dream table ... Or maybe we'll make our own (LOVE this blog!!) with salvaged wood, and be very happy, making do with something perfectly suitable, easier on the budget, and more in keeping with our lifestyle.

Watch out for the quiet ones

We are smack dab in the middle of packing boxes in a big way. Every couple of nights GR and I will load up the mini-van and take boxes over to the new house (if you're just catching up with us ... we're buying Bob and Diane's country house! They are moving into town - a huge, beautiful, brand new condo!). The mini van, with the back bench folded down can hold 13 plastic storage tubs - who needs a truck when you have a mini van? Bob's given us a corner of the basement and it is quickly filling up. Thanks to the help of good friends and my Mom, we're on track for moving the first weekend in February. One second I'm super calm and feel really good about what we've accomplished, the next minute I'm sure we'll never make it and I'm totally overwhelmed with what is left to do. And there is still so much!

The kids are handling the house slowly being packed up over the course of five weeks fairly well. More often then not, I'm having to say, I'm sorry we've packed that already when they ask for something. All but a few of their books were packed weeks ago, as were most of the board games. All the craft supplies are packed up too, save but a box of crayons, a pair of scissors and some glue sticks.

The biggest challenge for me has been having the food storage packed and all but one cookbook. I'm discovering some great new recipes in a seldom used cookbook from 1998! And I'm rather impressed by what I'm able to make using only what's in the refrigerator, little pantry and freezers -- good gravy we have a lot of random things in there. Thankfully it means I don't have to shop much and hopefully we will have less to move as we whittle our way through it.

Anna continues to be extremely adventuresome, what a little personality!! She is definitely one who you have to worry about if she's super quiet. When she's super quiet one of three things is happening ... she's sleeping (rare), she's playing independently, she's discovered something to disassemble and dump out. Lately she's been doing the later more so than the others, probably because she knows I'm tired and have my head in boxes all over the place.

Here's a glimpse of what she's been doing ... I'm sure I'll have more to share in the weeks to come!

14 January 2010

Waving at the camera to wish her cousin a happy birthday. Note all the toothpicks on the floor behind her.

15 January 2010 - Lots of slivered almonds from the freezer.

18 January 2010 - hundreds of little red tube beads ... Ms. Sherlock, discovered them well hidden under the couch.

20 January 2010 - off to the Grocery store with Mom for a gallon of milk - all decked out with her scarf and three necklaces that had to be worn together. Yep, I'm worried ...

Diversion

I don't always focus well, especially when my feet are held to the fire by deadlines, and often get distracted by other "more exciting" things. Yesterday afternoon and this morning, when I should have been cleaning my house and preparing for tomorrow, or sewing pillowcases and photographing them for this weekends sale in the shop, I started something new to go above my mantel...



The inspiration and directions came from this tutorial. The pine cones, from the neighborhood park the kids and I went to for playgroup when they were off school. While they played, I picked 1/2 a brown paper grocery sack full. It wasn't quite enough, so GR picked more for me this morning after purchasing our new dishwasher* and I was able to finish it up after lunch.

The directions say to use a Styrofoam wreath form. Styrofoam wasn't on sale when I went to purchase a wreath, and I wasn't willing to pay $7 for a small wreath form when a larger straw wreath (~14" in diameter) was 1/2 off, costing a grand total of $1.80. I wrapping the straw wreath in brown calico from the gifted-to-me, box of vintage fabric, securing it to the form with lots of straight pins. It worked like a charm, and means I can return the $4 can of brown spray paint.



I love the way it turned out, even though it isn't as nicely staged as hers. Mine really needs some stylizing help ... Sara I so wish you lived next door! Maybe when I get the nativity up and some greens on the mantel it will help anchor and define the space ... who knows.

If you have access to pine cones and like this look, it would make a fantastic handmade gift. Just make sure you have lots of similarly sized small pine cones, a hefty supply of hot glue and block out a good 3 hours to glue all these puppy on - or choose a slightly smaller wreath.

[* We finally gave up on the old dishwasher. I know after all that waiting and heartache, we finally decided to walk away and sever our ties. GR was completely fed up; he's the family dishwasher. Same problem, dishes, especially glasses on the top rack, coming out in worse condition than going in. Sears had some good pre-Black Friday sales and we found a good middle ground dishwasher made by Bosch, that will suite our needs and be one more added "feature" to the house when we go to sell in February.]

How many CSRs does it take to repair a dishwasher?

The full story ...

Earlier this year we had our dishwasher serviced. The top rack dishes were not getting clean ... grit was getting cemented on the glasses every time we ran the dishwasher. A royal waste of time and water, if you ask me, since they all had to be hand scrubbed in super hot water to get the grit off.

LeRoy came out, cleaned out the motor and got it working, but wasn't sure how much longer it would last, predicting that within the year it would need to be replaced. At the end of the service call he mentioned a service agreement/warranty I could purchase for $90 that would cover all parts and labor on the machine for the next year. I bought it on the spot after clarifying that it would cover all parts and labor (LeRoy mentioned the motor would cost ~$300) ... $90 seemed like a good investment.

Fast forward a few months ... The dishwasher worked really well for a few weeks after LeRoy left and then it went back to it's old tricks again. Near the end of May, I was able to make an appointment for June 4th, and requested LeRoy to come back.

June 4th ... Within 10 minutes of looking at the dishwasher, LeRoy assessed that the motor did indeed need to be replaced. His inventory list showed it wasn't on his truck, but he went to look anyway, and found one - yippee!! Took out my old motor, went to install the new motor, but discovered the seal from the old motor wasn't salvageable AND he didn't have the part on his truck - he searched his truck for a good 45 minutes trying to find it. His inventory sheet listed one in stock, otherwise he'd have never started. So the part got ordered - it would be shipped to the house -LeRoy would return the following Thursday. In the meantime the dishwasher would not - could not be used.

June 9th ... Sears called to tell me the part had shipped and to call them when the part arrived so the service appointment could be scheduled.

June 10th ... The part arrived, but when I called to confirm arrival of the part, the only service appointment available is Friday. One more day, we can handle that.

June 12th ... late afternoon, LeRoy arrives. He installs the new motor and seal lick-ity-split. My friend Kelly who's over with her kids, loads my dishwasher and starts it. 10 minutes into the cycle, water pours out of the bottom of the machine. I call LeRoy's cell - he comes back ~5:30 and finds that the drain pump needs to be replaced. Another part that needs to be ordered.

June 18th ... I've had no word from Sears, so I call. CS has no clue what I'm talking about. No part is on order, no follow-up appointment is scheduled. I make an appointment for Monday, request LeRoy, and specifically tell the CSR that I speak that a drain pump needs to be on his truck so he can make the repair.

June 20th ... LeRoy stops by the house first thing in the morning. Becca answers the door and before I can get downstairs to talk with him, he tells Becca, that the drain pump is on back order and he's not sure when it will come in. I am totally confused, and call Sears ... relay the timeline and repair history to three different CSRs in an effort to determine if the part will be in for my Monday AM appointment - trying to explain that there is no point for a repairman to come without the part. The part is ordered that morning, and a "rush" is put on it. I am told to call back Sunday to track the parts progress and if necessary reschedule my Monday morning appointment.

June 21st ... I call Sears ... mid sentence we are disconnected. I call back and am told they are experiencing call center issues and to call back in an hour or so.

June 22nd ... A technician is still scheduled to arrive anytime between 8 and noon. I was told he would call ahead to let me know what time he would arrive and if he could not reach me at home, he would call the cell number. Consequently, with cell phone in hand, I take the kids to VBS. On my way home I call Sears to determine if the drain pump has arrived. Drive on hold and am home by the time I'm talking to a real person. While talking to the CSR I discover a post-it note on the door from Glen who was in my driveway at 9:14, six minutes before I walked in the door. I loose my temper and vent a bit of frustration at the entire system ... why ask for a number you have no intention of given the repairman? What a royal waste of every ones time!! The CSR gets in touch with the repairman who eventually calls me and shows up around 11am ... he does not have the part necessary to fix the dishwasher, but as to not waste his trip, takes a second look to see if there is anything more he can do to help the dishwasher along. Glen finds a few more things that could stand to be replaced, orders all the parts and tells me he'll be back on Thursday to install everything.

June 24th ... call from Sears CS ... seams my parts will arrive sometime Thursday. They cannot guarantee UPS will deliver them before the repairman arrives, and suggest moving the appointment to Friday morning. I tell the CSR that I want to keep both appointments so my dishwasher that services a family of seven, has now be inoperable at no fault of mine, for three weeks now, can be up and running as quickly as humanly possible. I'm told that it is physically impossible for me to have a service appointment for Thursday and Friday. I press the matter more than once and the CSR could really care less. Backed in to a corner, with no where else to go, I relent and change the appointment to Friday morning.

June 25th ... the parts arrive.

June 26th ... Glen arrives. The parts department sent him six of one of the parts he ordered ... five more than he needed. Thankfully they sent all the other parts too and was able to install all the necessary parts. It took him quite a while to get everything cleaned out, taken a part and then put back together again. But the machine now works!!

LeRoy called an hour or more after Glen left to let me know that the drain pump he had ordered for me had arrived. I brought him up to speed on what had happened on my end, and he did the same. Turns out when he went to order the part on the 12th they were back ordered, so he tried to get the part through other connections in an effort to save time and, well it didn't save anytime. Thankfully he'll be able to use the part elsewhere and since it will be on his truck, this all won't happen to someone else.

I should explain that I was really happy with the two repairman that came to service the machines. The customer service department and the parts department - not so much.

Thanks to all who had some fun with GR on facebook about all this ... you helped us smile our way through a straw that was trying to break our back. More thanks to those sweet soles who came and washed our dishes ... totally unnessecary, but oh so nice to have good conversation and a clean kitchen in the end (gave me time to clean up everything else).

My mom's been in town ... last night while we went to the MoTab concert, she got all the kids involved in hand washing the dishes and drying them. They were actually arguing about who would do the bubbles and who should rise. Hopefully we can carry this over to loading and unloading the dishwasher. I'm so behind in handing out specific chores and daily tasks to the kids. They do their share of work around here, but it's by assignment, as needed, and if I can just get some breathing room in this schedule of mine, I need to create a daily tasks chart for each of them and expand their repertoire to something more regular than - by assignment as needed.

I am just so glad this is all over! Now if Commerce would just send me the ATM cards I requested weeks ago, there will be no more reasons for me to call 1-800 CS numbers.

30 minutes of my life this morning

Email written to GR this morning ... sent at 9:51 am.

Took kids to VBS @ Methodist Church … Got home at 9:20. Found note from repair technician … not LeRoy … on door. He was there at 9:14. He did NOT call my cell phone - [why ask for my cell number when I make the appointment if they don't give the repairman my cell number to call]?

While he was in our driveway I was on the phone [my cell phone] with customer service and driving home. Supposedly, the technician will call me back. I STILL DO NOT KNOW IF THE REPAIRMAN EVEN HAS THE PART NECESSARY TO FIX MY DISHWASHER!! I’m suppose to discuss my problem with him and see if we can find a solution.

I got rather frustrated on the phone … I feel I was justified, although I did explain that it was not her fault, but I had talked with 5 different people this weekend trying to resolve my issue and no one, no one has been able to truly answer my questions and resolve my issue.

* * * * *
Alex is singing “Rock and Roll with Rudy” over and over and over again. I’m confident he’s on his 2nd round of 100!

* * * * *
Anna tried to eat the flowers I put in the trash can.

===== end message =====

After hearing about this email, and knowing a bit about our dishwasher saga, said we should be a reality tv show ...

This dishwasher mess is about to put GR and I over the edge. We've been without a dishwasher since the 4th and when Glen returned to look it over an hour or so after he called, Sears had not supply him with the necessary part to make the repair nor had they given him my cell number. Thankfully he did his due diligence and looked over the machine to familiarize himself with what was wrong. He found a few more things to replace, and when it was all said and done, he ordered $169.26 worth of parts (including a drain pump) and said he'd be back Thursday morning to install them.



When this is all over ... meaning the dishwasher is in good working order ... either because all the necessary parts have finally arrived, or GR gets fed up and goes to Best Buy to purchase a new one, I'll post the play by play of what it's taken to get it up and running.

----------------------

In other news, Anna took her first steps this afternoon. We went to Grandma and Grandpa's to swim and she took a few steps in the kitchen on the tile!! My friend Kathy said she'd taken a little one at church yesterday so I was totally surprised when she took 3-4 in a row this afternoon! It won't be long now!

1¢ = 20,000¢

This is our garbage disposal whose motor burned up last night ...


because of this ...


causing us to spend 20,000 more to replace it.

I am very pleased to say, that GR managed to install the new one all by himself, in the time it took me to shower and get dressed for our night out. Impressive, huh!

Our night out was attending the local high schools legendary choir variety show. They have been putting on this show for decades and the kids didn't disappoint this year. It really is an incredible show! One of our seniors was in a handful of performances, two of which he organized and choreographed. They were both very impressive. One was a spot on perfect, rendition of the YouTube sensation, OK Go's A Million Ways.



Brent contacted OK Go to get permission to perform their song - and got it. OK Go, didn't have a written score for the song, A Million Ways, a non-negotiable must-have to perform, and so Brent took on the task of getting the YouTube song put on paper. OK Go actually paid the high school music director, who I hear is an absolute genius, to write the score.

This is another favorite OK Go performance. When asked, the choir director nixed moving 8 tredmills on and off the high school auditorium stage. To bad, 'cause it would have made a fantastic number!

The Nose Knows

... but the eyes were too late.

All in a days work

I have a brand new roof! I am so excited! The crew started at 9am this morning, and worked as hard and fast as they could all day long until the finished it ... The picture of the house was taken at 3pm ... when I had to leave at 5:45, they were still popping nails as fast as they could, but they got it done.



Why the new roof? Remember the wind storms we had a while back in 2006? Well it turns out the damage we sustained to our roof was more substantial than we initially thought. A month or so after the storm, we had a roofer come out and replace the missing shingles on the garage, but we had no idea we had extensive damage near the chimney, above the master bedroom until this spring. Our back neighbors catty-corner to us, mentioned we had 10 or so loose and missing shingles, so we started making phone calls to our insurance company and roofing companies to find out what our options were. In the mean time, we got hit with lots of heavy rain ... yet another reason to paint the master bedroom.

The insurance company called the roof a total loss and gave us money for replacing the roof as well as repainting the master bedroom. Instead of going with the roofer who came and did the inspection for the insurance agency, we opted to go with a smaller, locally owned company, and I am so glad we did. They were amazing. They worked fast, they did high quality work (better than what I would have gotten with a larger company) and their price was 25% less than the other guys. So if any of you locals are looking for a good roofing company, let me know!

I got home too late tonight to take pictures of the finished product, but I'm very pleased with the color shingle we choose - thunderstorm gray. It was such a hard decision to make ... how is this four inch picture going to look aver 2000 sq feet of shingles? But when I left tonight, it was looking so nice with the color of the house! Here's a close up from the next day ... I've been told, it looks so much better in person, what a relief!

Getting Ready for Baby

While the children were out of town June 17-23rd, I wanted to use that time to do some things to get ready for the baby... namely paint Sam's room (which had beautiful murals done by a resident 2-year old artist and his assistants done on a canvas of blah flat white).

My friend Stormy (Stake RS President - the other blonde in the pictures below) is an amazing interior designer and I asked if she would help me pick paint colors for Sam and the baby's room using the curtains and quilts I'll be using in their room as the jumping off point. We picked paint colors Monday, I purchased paint Wednesday, and painted all the solid walls, and she and I spent Thursday and Friday doing all the detail work (FYI the dresser took 12 hours to paint... with minimal breaks to add the red squares upstairs, eat dinner, and test paint Sam's bed... I can't believe how much blue tape we used in two days!). I still need to take pictures of the final room... you'll need to wait for that. But here are spoiler before and after pictures. You can tell what an amazing designer Stormy is by this transformation.





We got Sam a big boy bed and some cute sheets to coordinate with the room - $5 each at Linens & Things! In the next 15 days I need to hang pictures, call a custom furniture maker to make the finishing details for Sam's head board and foot board, deliver Sam's quilt to be quilted (see bears paw quilt), oh yeah... and actually put all the baby's bedding on the crib! :)

Weekend Warriers

Saturday, 27 March 2006

While the children played in a new sprinkler, GR and I continued to work on cleaning out and organizing the garage. We started Friday night by taking down some shelves we put up last fall that despite our best molly bolting efforts, ripped themselves from the walls.

It seems that every 5-6 months we need to spend a Saturday morning reorganizing the garage, sweeping out all the dirt and leaves that find their way into the garage, take a load of cardboard boxes to the recycling center, and clear space to park bikes and organize the outdoor toys.

GR talked me out of taking a picture of the heaping pile of trash we set out Tuesday AM. I did feel better as I drove around the neighborhood Monday evening... everyone in our neighborhood either cleaned out their garage or basement this weekend because nearly every house on the street had twice as much trash out for the Tuesday morning pick-up as they normally do.

One item that got thrown away worth noting: The original W Family tents that were 18+ years old. These were the tents we used to camp for the very first time as a family in Bryce Canyon. Daddy would remember the exact year. They were used on many a family camping trip, father son camp outs, scout camping trips, etc. Barbara brought them to use at girls camp the summer she nannied for us in 2002. They didn't get opened then, and they haven't been opened since - just sitting rolled up in my garage. I wanted to make sure everyone was satisfied that they had served their purpose. Daddy assured me they had, and in the trash they went, bugels sounding as they made their way to the end of the drive way.