Welcome to malshag.org, the chronicles of our growing family consisting of several humans, six dogs, two cats, some reptiles and a gay rhino.
I’ve apparently been busted tossing a loaf or two. I was able to slide land a bag of bagels from 14 feet, I’m the Julius Erving of delicious baked goods.
Regrettably, crushed bread doesn’t make for fantastic sandwiches. One mashed slice too many being peeled off the slice below it, and I am greeted by a behavioral Dear John notice.
I thought the inserted “please” was a nice touch, it was at least endearing in the face of such bread mangling tragedy.
We have massive amounts of photos to share. L is becoming a fully sentient being.
His Adidas jacket fits.
He can hold his head up, and he’s seeking out and grasping objects.
He can roll over onto his tummy. Since he can’t roll back yet, all he does when he gets there is piss and moan.
He’s finally able to sit in his Bumbo, and (mostly) stay upright.
Occasionally it’s time to throw the blanket around.
After bathtime, it’s time to rest.
One very long plumber visit later, a fair amount of sheetrock and floor material has been ripped out. All the piping in the wall has been replaced with larger diameter PVC pipe, all the way through the wall to the garage where the washing machine resides.
For our temporary counters, we chose IKEA’s Udden tables. They are sturdy and inexpensive, and can be fitted with under counter box cabinets in the future (like this and this).
We decided to have the plumber hook up the sink and run the lines for the dishwasher. There are many things that are not difficult to DIY, but sometimes it’s just easier and faster to outsource.
The next step is to re-sheetrock and lay the flooring, and judging by the speed at which life seems to get in the way of projects, this will most likely happen sometime in 2011.
E found a white ceramic lamp with a gross lamp shade at an estate sale, for a whopping $9.00. She spray painted it apple green and threw a barrel shade on top, and sat it in our front room.
We demolished the lower cabinets in the kitchen today, after taking last night to deliberate what our plan of action would be.
When we finally got all the cabinets out, we discovered what we expected, namely a ton of water damage as well as standing water underneath the house.
The source of the gushing water is the large copper drain pipe in the lower right hand corner. It has an unsoldered hole right in the end of it.
Water has damaged not only the floorboards and the sheetrock facing the kitchen, but has also damaged some of the concrete board backing the brick on the exterior of the house. The subfloor has completely disintegrated. We scooped up the shaving sized pieces of subfloor, and hit the area with the Shop Vac.
Our plan for the next 24 hours is to cover the area with 6mil plastic sheeting, and wait for the plumber’s visit tomorrow. Once he resolders the drain pipe, we can move the temporary counter furniture into the kitchen.
I’m not overly worried about this. We had planned on gutting the kitchen anyway, it’s just come at a severely inopportune time (as most things in life do).
The dishwasher broke a few weeks ago. In assessing the repairs, the gentleman noticed our hot water line had come a tiny bit loose and had been spraying water underneath the cabinet for who knows how long. We obviously don’t frequent the lower cabinets.
The washing machine drain pipe had become clogged and began spewing water out over the top, which I discovered when I moved a number of boxes in the garage, only to find the bottoms flooded.
We finally called a plumber, who fixed the washing machine backup problem. We ran the washing machine and all the water from the washing machine drain subsequently came gushing out from underneath the dishwasher, onto the already-most-likely-damaged kitchen floor.
With such little access to this obviously disastrous piping and full knowledge that before we tile we will have to replace floor boards and subflooring, we are deciding to rip out all the lower cabinets this weekend.
We have some ideas as to creating a mobile counterspace for the next period of time during which all this work will be done. I will be posting photos over the course of the weekend.
Right after I told my friend, “Watch out for that ice,” I slipped on it and crashed landed. One leg went one way, the other leg went the opposite way, and my ankle turned on some third, unfortunate axis.
Though I heard a loud pop, nothing is broken. I have a “tendon pull” or something to that effect. I’m in this gimpy shit called an “Aircast”. I can’t tell if it’s “Aircast” or “AirCast”, because the logo is in all capital letters.
It might have been the first time in my life I’ve felt really old.