Bathroom nearly done; summer ends

Good family news - Andrew made it through the night without a diaper, with no incident.  We have kept him in the diaper for awhile and he usually does not use it, but with the toilet out on the first floor for awhile we did not want to risk.  We gave it a shot, and he did fine.  Once he turned the corner on using the potty, he went all the way with no turning back.  He has a strong independent steak so once he realized he was capable, there was no doubt.

Tomorrow, Sarah and Dave leave for Taiwan.  It was a quick week with us, but the kids have especially been delighted to have some family around consistently to play with them.  They love the attention.  We will all be sad to see them go.

The past week has brought an intense spurt of bathroom reno. Too much, in fact.  I let the project languish a little bit, not by design, but out of desire to repeat follies from past summers.

Two years ago, I completed the bathroom and basement renovations, and it was not pretty.  I enlisted half of Rachel's family as free labor and we hardly got it done before summer ended.  I was wiped out physically and mentally.  I had to take some shortcuts and so I was not as proud of the work as I could have been.

This year, I worked hard through July (when not on vacation or sick!).  But I still had coffee in the morning, read the paper, had breakfast with the kids, and was done with work before dinner.  It allowed me to keep a regular rhythm to life that was sustainable.

Last week, I wanted to kick the process into higher gear because summer was ending and guests are staying upstairs.  After a few long days and nights, I got the floor, toilet, and vanity installed.  And I vowed not to continue with these nights because my patience was wearing thin.  Since then the shower has been tiled.  I just need to grout, seal, and finish the trim.

Feeling a little bathroom fatigue, I decided to tackle to the other summer project - the kitchen / mud room door.  The steel entry door was not ugly, but added nothing and stole needed light.  On a separate trip to HOBO, a Chicago-area bargain home improvement store, we found an exterior-grade 15-lite door at a fraction of the price of any of the big boys.  I ripped out the door and marveled at the sub-standard construction of my previous kitchen renovations.  It is good to know that my skills have improved.  We added a picture window above the door, because there was a hole in the exterior wall from where the original transom window was located.  I also took the opportunity to remove the builder's grade trim from the door and the pass through to the dining room, and install trim that better matches what is found elsewhere in the house.  Not painted yet, but a nice little diversion project.

We are also making headway in some mudroom renovations.  I am sick of the ice cold shoes in winter, so I added an HVAC run to the mudroom.  I am sure the walls need insulation to really make it habitable, but this is a start.  There are some short- and long-term goals to accomplish to improve this area's functionality and appearance, so we will try to tackle some of those quick wins now that we can see this area from the house a little more.

Time to clean up - the garage is a complete mess, but the basement is getting there.

Work begins on Monday.  Egads!

-alan 

Return of the blog

So this blog was silent for over a year.  Why?  Many reasons, including work and family responsibilities increasing over the past year.  So let's summarize, as if that were possible...

Last summer, I embarked on a year-long program sponsored by the Chicago Teacher's Union to mentor me through the process of applying for a National Board Certification.  This is a nationally recognized certificate to classify me as a "master" teacher and a nice pay bump.  Sounds nice, right?  Well the program was grueling, occupying more time than I could have imagined.  There was a 2 week summer institute, weekly meetings downtown, and lots of writing assignments that occupied my free time most every night.  I tried to compensate by getting to work at 6 each morning, so that I would not have lesson planning or papers to grade at home.  This was mostly successful, though my friends could not comprehend getting up at 5am for work.  I also had a student teacher in two of my classes, so that I had some more free time to get stuff done.  Rachel was particularly supportive, volunteering to do extra chores and spending extra time with the kids while I was attending my classes.

So blogging certainly was an easy thing to cut from life.  But all that work was worth it.  Thanks to collective bargaining there will be a great payoff starting next year.  I learned some great new tools and techniques to augment my teaching.  I got a lot of practice at doing analytic writing.  And I got to work with some great people that I met through the program.  Results, sadly, will not be revealed until Halloween.

At home, the boys are growing.  Andrew completed his second year of co-op nursery school and his first summer camp.  Here he is singing proudly at the end-of-year concert.  He actually likes to pretend sing better than actually producing sounds...

He is mostly potty trained, which was accomplished fairly painlessly.  He largely refused to shed the diaper, but as soon as his mind was made up he made the transition within a few weeks.  He is becoming an oldest child, trying as much as possible to boss around / protect / antagonize his little brother.  He loves being outside, playing with his parents, making faces in the mirror, trains, playing drums, electronics, Legos, and going shopping.

Daniel has turned a year and a half, and is much more gregarious than big brother.  He is very smiley and loves getting the attention of others.  His biggest obsession is balls, which was also his first word.  He has words for more, stuck, mom, dad, andrew, water, stroller, shoes, outside, and several more that I forget.  He is adding them every day and will probably explode with words shortly.  He also loves being outside, trains, and construction trucks, all of which he learned from his big brother.

Construction on Milwaukee Ave, the major street at the end of the block, has been winding down this summer.  It has been a major road reconstruction project, and has been a source of fascination for the boys.  There are still some trucks parked down the street, but the workers have mostly moved on the street is reopened.

Earlier this month we took our annual summer trip to visit Mom in Michigan.  It was a bit more tiring than previous vacations, mostly because the children's attention spans dictate lots of activities to prevent them from getting restless and destroying Mom's condo.  But that also made it fun to be able to visit lots of people and do things out and about.  We went to the Oakland County Fair and the kids spent nearly an hour getting on and off all the old tractors on display, in addition to watching the motorcycle globe of death, pig race, animal displays, and a few rides.  We had a couple fun days at Sharon and Matt's house (my childhood home), saw Phil and Karen's house for the last time (it has been sold), visited my cousin Caroline for a playdate, went to the splash park in Farmington, and lots of walks in Mom's condo complex.

Currently I am working on our first floor bath.  I would call it the "main" bath, but it is actually identical in square footage to the one a floor above.  Even has the same layout.  And some elements of the design will be the same, though they will be distinct enough from each other than it shouldn't seem too cookie-cutter.  

The bath was one of the top priorities to renovate upon moving into the house, but for circumstantial reasons the project has been postponed until this year.  Sorry 1970s, but the pink just never grew on us.

Pink linoleum tile, pink tub, pink toilet, pink sink, and wall-to-wall pink tile.  With some lovely glass block.  There was no recourse here, it was time to start from scratch.

I took out 3 layers of wall (ceramic tile, acrylic tile, plaster and lathe), and 3 layers of vinyl floor tile to uncover the original hexagon tile floor.  In retrospect it could have been saved, but I was concerned about water damage to the subfloor.  After jackhammering through 4 inches of concrete, I found that the damaged subfloor was not actually loadbearing.  Lesson learned.

The tub was also a bit of work, as it was an old cast iron tub that needed quite of bit of coaxing with a sledgehammer to bust into pieces.  Thanks Eric for all the demolition equipment!

I have since laid a new subfloor (needed 2 layers of 3/4 inch ply to bring it up to level!), reframed the exterior wall, and added insulation.

I have drywalled the ceiling and 2 of 4 walls, installed the tub, rerouted drain and water lines, installed a new door, and updated the electrical.  Lots done, but still lots to do.

Finally, it was supposed to be wedding week around here.  It was, but just not as planned.  Rachel was matron of honor in our friend Christine's wedding on Saturday, and Andrew was the ring bearer.  They fulfilled their roles, but that was about it.

Daniel fell ill on Tuesday with what turned out to be a mild case of hand, foot and mouth disease.  Andrew also fell slightly ill on Thursday and Friday, but was well enough to attend the rehearsal.  I stayed home with Daniel during the rehearsal but then was picked up by Rachel to attend the rehearsal dinner.  Unfortunately, I got too sick and had to leave about an hour later.  I went straight to bed and woke up with a fever of 103 and felt simply dreadful.  Rachel was gone the whole day for the wedding.  I stayed home, as did Daniel.  Andrew attended the ceremony only.  The boys actually felt fine, but we didn't want to risk infecting other kids.  As for me, I feel a little better today and hope to work at school tomorrow morning with some students....fever is gone, so I think I will be ok.

-alan