I hope everyone enjoyed lots and lots of turkey, tofurkey, or turducken today. Since I was a total slacker and finally finished putting my fall mantle together yesterday I made sure to take a photo of it. I’ve been so busy these past few weeks with holiday photo sessions, people love their photo holiday cards…I know I do, and editing non-stop I haven’t had much time to make my mantle look all purdy-like.

Luckily, I made that wreath during October or else it would never have been finished. I love how it turned out. I was able to reuse many pieces from my Halloween mantle and the other decor was just grabbed from around the house. So, this bad boy was F, to the R, to the E-E!!!

I figured I would take the few spare minutes I had to myself yesterday to make it look pretty, because who knows how long it will take me to get our Christmas decor up.

Well, I’m off to eat some pie and a second helping of turkey. Peace.

That’s right I said it, POO!

Let’s flash back to the week we were leaving for our ski trip. Sunday, Derek gave the dogs a much needed bath in the tub. Since our dogs seem to be fur factories we use a drain strainer when we bathe them in the tub. (It was too cold out to bathe them outdoors.) The strainer caught a significant amount of fur, but my dogs are all about going above and beyond when it comes to fur production. They really should live in the north pole. It wouldn’t phase them. So much fur got past the drain strainer that our main sewer line got backed up. That meant Monday morning these guys were at my house.

That’s right just 3 days before we were hopping on a plane to Utah a major issue hits. Welcome to adulthood Jennifer! The RR guys shows up around 11am, and I told him the issue and asked if he could run our main sewer line from the roof because our clean out was under the house. We thought this would be a simple fix for our problem. I mean we’ve had this done before. We were expecting to be out a few hundred bucks and an hour of our day. That was so not what happened. Do to new OSHA regulations they are no longer allowed to climb on people’s roofs. Something about them falling and getting hurt. Sheesh!

Our next option was to remove the toilet from the floor and bring in a huge nasty auger machine to run the main line from our bathroom. Since we only have one bathroom that meant my bladder wasn’t getting relief for a little while. I have a tiny bladder. Dude got about 10-15 ft out into the sewer line and BAM!!! roots. Stopped dead in it’s tracks. Let me remind you that augers have huge blades on the end of them. That didn’t matter to the massive oak tree roots that had taken up residence in our sewer line. Since our home was built in the 40′s that means clay pipes, people. Clay pipes eventually break down or crack, or in our case get eaten alive by tree roots, and then you get to spend a billion dollars replacing them.

We had to get our entire front yard dug up. Say what!?! I’m freaking at this point. I have two dogs who bark at anything that even looks at our front yard, and to have a backhoe digging it up…that my good sir equals bleeding ears. I have an infant that will somehow need to nap in all of this noise and chaos. Oh yeah, WE ARE LEAVING FOR VACATION IN 3 DAYS!!!!!!! (Insert visual of me here looking like Kevin from Home Alone.) They can only work in your yard on non raining days, and guess what Tuesday and Wednesday it was supposed to pour. At this point it was already 12:30pm. How in the heck could we get this done before we leave?

Derek’s younger brother was house/dog sitting for us, but I wasn’t going to leave him to deal with the plumbers. That’s just not fair to him. Then there was  the issue of if we don’t get this done before we leave we will have to pee in the backyard, and shower at other people’s homes for the next few days. I don’t do the whole squatting and peeing thing well. I mean I was in a sorority in college where most girls learn to hover when they need to pee, because who really wants to sit on the toilet seat of a frat house? Not this girl. Thing is, I never could get the whole peeing w/out a toilet thing down. Needless to say, peeing in the yard was out. That’s for dogs and boys. That meant we had to replace our sewer line TODAY. Well, not today, today. But, the today that was that Monday.

I forgot to mention that once the plumber was done trying to run the main line from the bathroom there was nasty everywhere. On the walls, toilet, sink, bathtub…you name it. I spent the rest of the day scrubbing brown nasty water off of everything in that bathroom. And we all know what was in that brown water. I really should have worn a hazmat suit.

We had been planning to get a new roof with our sizable tax return, but it looks like that will have to wait. The toilets in this house fight dirty. Pun intended. Our poor roof really needs replacing too. Just look at it. It’s like a petri dish up there, and what’s with the two toned shingle configuration?

Here’s to hoping it holds on for a few more months. The plumber said that replacing a main sewer line is a two part job. The main portion could be completed that day. And the next morning all they needed to do was have the city inspect the work, and cover the new line up. That meant we would have working plumbing again by 6pm. I thought that surely there was no way that was possible, but he assured me they could do it.

Now here’s the sucky part. To replace our sewer line they quoted me $3900. Yikes! Plus, an additional $300 if the water line is hit and they have to replace that. Are you freaking kidding me!?! I decided to be balls-y and ask what they could do for me as far as the price goes. I’m not one to normally do this, so I was way, way, way out of my comfort zone here. Andre, that was our plumber’s name. By the way he was a super nice guy. Didn’t care for the dogs much, but super nice. Okay, back to the discount. Andre got an okay from his supervisor to include the additional $300 in the base price of $3900 even if they do hit the water line, and they would take $300 off if they didn’t hit the water line. That dropped the price down to $3600. Guess what. They didn’t hit the water line!

That Monday morning when I woke up my yard looked like this, minus the kidnapper van in the driveway…

Not too bad, but way better than this…

Once we agreed upon the price they went to pick up the backhoe and got to digging around 2:30pm.

See those massive roots he’s digging up? That’s why we are now $3,600 poorer. Those roots are the same size, if not bigger, than the pipe they destroyed.

I guess one good thing that came out of all of this poop filled chaos was we were able to get rid of the stupid stump that was just chillin’ in our front yard. Removing a tree stump yourself with a rented machine or by a pro usually cost anywhere from $100 to $300. We were willing to live with the stump, but always wished it would magically disappear. You know, like baby socks in the dryer. I thought Andre had met his match when it was time to remove the tree stump, but that man showed it no mercy and tossed it aside like a used tissue. Just look at that beast. It’s in two pieces in this photo.

Once the digging was complete we were left a really long hole. I considered turning it into a lap pool. I wonder if we would see the return for a front yard lap pool when we went to sell the house? I think so.

So many roots. At each end of the hole you saw the connecting pipes.

(house side)

(street side)

I was told that even Grayson shouldn’t live to see the day that tree roots destroy the new PVC pipes. That sounds glorious. They installed two clean outs in PVC. One was at the street for city access…

…and the second was right by the house. Not under the house like our old one which is still under there. Seriously, why would you put a sewer clean out UNDER a house. The old one sits right under the bay window in the dining room. That makes me wonder if the bay windows were added onto the house when the original owners added onto the kitchen and master bedroom back in the 70′s.

The new clean outs and sewer line were in place by 6pm. That meant I could pee again. Whoop whoop! My bladder thanks you Roto Rooter.

Since they were digging up our front yard I asked them to take it easy on the stone path. We just laid it two years earlier, and it was not cheap or easy to do. We only lost one stone. I think it’s buried under all that mud somewhere.

I did dig up my hostas that were in the way. There was no way I was loosing those to a backhoe. Those babies help my blah front yard look fresh and alive during the summer months. They were just beginning to bud so it was a perfect time to go ahead a split them while I had them out of the ground.

The next morning the plumbers were at our house bright and early waiting on the city inspector. They waited and waited and waited. The inspector showed up around 10:30am, and was there it seemed all of two seconds and then left. Poor guys. They waited for around for almost 3 hours for an inspection that took less time than it does for me to blow my nose.

That’s the inspector with the hat on.

Once the inspection was done it was time to cover up the new sewer line. As they put down the last bit of dirt the rain started to fall.

Before Monday’s little project…

After Monday’s little project…

As if my yard wasn’t looking bad enough from winter. That petri dish of a roof doesn’t help much does it?

As for the stump we were left looking at once again, this time out of the ground, we lucked out and were able to pay a tree service that was working a few houses down to haul away the stump for us. Derek handed them $40 cash and it was G-O-N-E.

Has anyone else gone through this? Did we get ripped off or make out like bandits? I’m hoping for the latter of the two.

Remember last week when I shared Squishy’s snow pictures? Well, guess what. The rest of the house got snow too.

Look how beautiful the stone bridge next to our house looks with the white fluffy stuff on top.

Our little creek froze over. Yes, it’s man made, but the stone bridge makes it kind of quaint.

And now, snow photos….

Y E L L O W   S N O W !

A couple days before the snow we must have had some strong winds in our area, because I awoke to our umbrella snapped in half like twig. Guess the wise thing to do would be to close said umbrella when not in use. Lesson. Learned. As you can see in the image below the umbrella is snapped in two places. Once at the base, and once at the table. Our already injured umbrella cracked under the weight of our massive 3 inch blizzard. I tell ya, it’s rough down in these parts.

Oh, and the dogs. Our dogs love, love, love the snow. Cohen is a fairly lazy dog in the back yard. Or in any yard for that matter, but not when it snows. When that kid sees the white stuff he gets a pep in his step like I’ve never see before. Wrigley benefits from the snow too, because she finally has someone to play with her in the backyard.

Pretty Girl.

Another reason Cohen loves when it snows is that he gets to eat it. I swear this dog was meant to live in Canaydia. (Yes, I know I spelled it wrong. I just like saying it that way)

It’s snowing as I type. That makes 3 times this winter.

Hi, my name is Jennifer, and I have a drop ceiling.  I admit it.  I’m guilty, but of only owning the ceiling.  Not installing it.  We purchased the house this way.  The drop ceiling is the product of a 1970′s remodel of the house.  See, I told you I didn’t do it.  I wasn’t even alive in the 70′s.  Swear!

We’ve always hated the drop ceiling.  I mean, it was a cockroach graveyard.  Nasty.  It was one of those many projects on our long To Do list for this house.

We were hoping to get this done before the bambino arrived, but there are so many hours in a day.  Now that the kiddo is here, and we are getting caught up on sleep and getting the hang of this baby wrangling thing we decided to “Get ‘er done!”.

Here’s what we were thinking.  We were hoping to install 6-8 can lights in the main part of the kitchen, and one just over the sink.  Unfortunately, our circuit boards are already at full capacity, and to add the can lighting we would have to do an upgrade to our circuity. That would cost around $3,000.  Ouch!  We were hoping for something under a grand.  The neighborhood we live in and the size of our house wouldn’t give us the return needed to recoup the cost of that kind of an upgrade when we sell in a few years.  We decided to go with a single florescent fixture, but in a dressy housing.

Derek was able to remove the framework himself.

Once removed, he found all this loveliness.

Since major electrical work is something we like to leave to the pros we called in an electrician to handle all those sparky little wires.  Nobody likes fried husband.

The electrician removed the old fixtures and moved the source to the center of the kitchen, just above the island.  Once that was done, Derek started patching all of the many imperfections in the ceiling.  And believe me, there were tons of them. Since the electrician was going to have to work on our kitchen in stages he was generous enough to leave us with some light in the kitchen.  Due to the kindness of our handyman we now have a single bulb dangling from the ceiling.  Chic, don’t ya think?

While patching, Derek noticed mold.  So freakin’ nasty.  I was freaked out by the green fuzzy stuff every time I walked into the kitchen.  Nobody wants that around their food.  Can you see it in this picture?  It’s just past the light.

Here’s a better look…

Luckily, it was green mold and not the bad black kind.  I think the mold started up there when moisture would become trapped in the paneling and had no place to go.  That makes sense since the mold area was just above the island/stove.  The mold was wipeable….thank goodness.

This weekend it looked like Dexter took over our kitchen, and made it his clean room.  Once Derek finished patching and wiping down the ceilings, he plasticed off the entire kitchen.  It was 360 degrees of plastic.  This place was so air tight we could have housed a bubble boy in here.

Why look here’s Dexter’s 1st victim now…

Since my man was dealing with a ton of dust and mold I made him wear a protective face mask and goggles, and thank God for that.  When he was finished sanding it looked like that boy got caught in a freak flour storm.

So that’s where we are currently on our little kitchen project.  I’ve got some ideas of colors for the walls and a cabinet revamp in the works; once this ceiling thing is out of the way.  I figure, hey why not?!  I’m a SAHM.  I’ve got the time for small cosmetic projects like this now.  Or so I think.

Last week, while grilling out in the backyard with friends, our grill broke.  But it didn’t just break…it rotted.  Let me explain.  You see, our grill is fed from a gas line running from our house.   The gas line runs up the inside a metal post that the grill sits on.

Our dog, Cohen, pees on this post daily.  Little did we know that our dog’s urine is so potent that it can eat through metal like a hot knife through butter.  Imagine that!

While grilling last week Derek noticed a bit of a wobble in the post.  Just as he took the last burger off the grill the post snapped in two.  So, then the guys spent the next hour removing the top of the grill so the weight wouldn’t snap the gas line in half.  I’m not really keen on having a giant fireball in my backyard.

Now we have a lovely exposed gas line just chilling in the backyard.  We’re all about the safety here at the Davenport house.  The grill worked just fine, but I never did like the look of this grill.  Maybe now Derek will spring for a new shiny toy.

Once the walls were dry Derek moved on to tiling.

Sunday morning Derek started throwing up some tile.  For his first big tiling project he did quite well.  I myself was unable to help due to my “condition”.  I like putting my baby bump into this phrasing because it gets me out of a lot of things I don’t want to do. Tee Hee Hee.  Just kidding.  Well kind of.

I don’t really mind doing jobs like this.  I would prefer to do manual labor rather than doing dishes or cleaning a house.  You see I grew up with a dad that let me help in lots of his at home projects.  As a matter of fact, my dad and I had a tradition on the weekends.  We would watch “This Old House” together in the AM.  I learned lots of what I know today from watching Bob Vila, in all his manual labor glory, and helping my dad around the house.  I use to ask for power tools for Christmas, and sometimes still do.

Back to Derek and his first big tiling project.  Derek has tiled before at our house, but it was just the fireplace and on that project he had the help of his lovely wifey.

Pretty good, eh?

Yes, yes, yes….we did fix the crack in the wall in the image above.  Those cracks are from the interesting repair work the guys did using a combo of tile adhesive and joint compound.  Don’t worry…I went back a few days later and corrected all the cracking and un-sanded and un-painted areas.

Here he is about to get his grout on.

Getting his grout on.

I helped for about 10 minutes just so the poor kid could stop and rest his sweet little arms and back.  Grouting is hard work.  While I did my 3×3 foot area Derek just laid down on the bathroom floor and rested.  Kind of adorable if you ask me.

Grayson even helped out.  He offered his room to store all the supplies.  What a good kiddo.

Little girl helped out too.  She offered her services guarding the front door.  She made sure no mass murderers, thieves, bugs, leaves, or kitty cats made it through that front door.  Or entered our front yard for that matter.

To help spruce up the place we decided to do away with the old and outdated shower kit that currently resided in the tub.

We purchased us a newer, prettier shower kit from overstock.com.  And for quite a bargain…only $78.99.  BAM!!!

Remember awhile back when I mentioned that we had animals living under our tub?  Well we found evidence.  Check out these scratch marks.

I think the animals pulled down lots of the insulation while living under there.  The animals come back every year, so I think this happened over time….I think.

Since there will be a wee one on the other side of this wall soon we thought it would be wise to replace the missing insulation.

This is a shot from Grayson’s closet.  See how close the two rooms are.

The next step by my heroes, I mean my husband and father-in-law was to patch the walls with concrete board and joint compound.

The guys were doing great sealing up the wall and filling in the crack until I noticed they were using the wrong product to do so.

You see, the tile adhesive and joint compound are in very similar tubs, and I’m not going to name names or anything, but someone picked up the wrong bucket and went to town filling in cracks with tile adhesive….not joint compound.

(all of the white is tile adhesive later to be covered by joint compound…in pink)

Once the geniuses, I mean guys, were about three fourths of the way done I walked into the bathroom to check in on the status.  I do this because leaving all the details and decisions to the men doesn’t always work out.  Hence, the tile adhesive being used as joint compound.  I really hope my wall stays UP.  I’ll keep you posted.

The joint compound/tile adhesive took WAY WAY  WAY too long to dry, but we waited it out anyway.  Once the walls were dry, Derek moved on to tiling.