Down to the wire

Things are coming to a head. I want the basement to be finished in the next 36 hours. I have people coming over Wednesday night and would like the basement to be complete. Due to things beyond my control this deadline might not be met. The basement is livable and warm. The bathroom should be done. But the kitchenette might be the one thing that doesn't allow us to cross the finish line. We shall see if a miracle will happen and mistakes can be rectified quickly. It will be done soon. I just am not sure of the 36 hour time limit.

Crafting

I moved into my craft room yesterday. I have a desk for scrapbooking. Getting the desk into the room was an adventure. We had to remove the desktop in order for it to fit through the door. But it has the largest worktop, and that is just what a scrapper needs. Dave also put up another table for my sewing machine. This is a very big room so I can have projects out in both areas at the same time. I also put a TV in that room and a phone. I could spend most of my day in that space and be a happy girl. Grant knows he has to ask to come in. We'll see how long that will last. But for now, I have a sanctuary in my home.

House Arrest

I guess working on the basement has felt a little like house arrest, at least that is what my friends say. A friend told me just yesterday, she can't wait for my basement to be finished because then I can come do things again. I guess I haven't really noticed, but I am really tied to the house. I have to wait for people to get here early in the morning and I have to stay while they work. I do get out to run some errands and take Grant to school. But as for getting together with people during the day, it hasn't happened in 7 weeks. I would say I need to get out more. When the basement is done I won't want to go anywhere because I'll have all this space to play in downstairs. I'll just have to have people come to my house.

Snow + Carpet

I was going to have the carpet installed in my basement on Friday. Due to things beyond my control the carpet wasn't going to be available until Friday afternoon, too late for them to install it. Friday was a beautiful, clear, warm day. Now the carpet guys are coming today, Monday. It is snowing as I type. It is cold and wet. I hope nothing bad happens to my carpet, or the tile for that matter. I will have to clean the tile when everything is finished. I just hope I don't have to clean off mud. Nothing I can do about the situation now. By the way, I hate snow.

Stuff

I have a large portion of my scrapbooking stuff sitting in my kitchen and living room area. I haven't had a place to put it away since the basement isn't finished yet. I was so looking forward to moving it today. The carpet guys thought they would be able to install the carpet today, but the carpet itself is coming in on the truck in the afternoon. So I have to wait until Monday for the carpet to be put in. I am sad. Teresa won't get to see the basement nearly finished now. I can't set up the guest room for her either. Oh well, just one more thing that I cannot control. The electrical is finished, though. We have wonderful light and power all over the basement. I still have a few paint touch ups to do. We should be done by the end of next week, barring any unforseen wrinkles in the schedule.
Grant is registering for Kindergarten today. I have to take him out of preschool in order to do this. I am not happy. The school is having the registration at 2 in the afternoon. Younger siblings should not attend so I have to find a sitter for Lila. What is the school thinking? What about parents that have to work? Grant is going to meet the teachers so he is supposed to be there. It still seems asinine. Will Grant even remember the teacher 4 months from now? Grant gets to go to the new school that is still under construction. Here's hoping the building is completed on time.

Nearly finished

The painting of the basement is nearly finished. I am nearly finished, also. I let the house go all week because I was spending so much time painting. The kids had free reign over the upstairs. Now I am dealing with the fallout. My basement will be a wonderful place for the kids to play. I love how much light I have down there. It doesn't feel like a basement since all but one of the windows are completely above ground. I love the walkout in the back. I can't wait for it to be done.

Coming Back

My weekend away was wonderful. The weather was warmer, the sun was shining, the trees were blooming. I did 46 pages. I enjoyed spending time with my sisters in-law. I spent lots of money. I got to eat hot meals without interruptions. I ate junk food. I didn't have to clean my mess up every day.

I am ready to go again. Being a mom is a very hard job. I'm sure there will be days that aren't as difficult. The kids will get older and will become better behaved. They will still fight with each other but Lila's main form of communication won't be 'crying'. She was very happy to see me after being away from me for 3 days. Grant had a lot to tell me when I walked in the door. Well, at least they missed me.

We primed the basement last night using a sprayer. I love how fast a sprayer goes, but I was covered from head to toe in fine paint dots when we were finished. Next time I will wear goggles. I wore a breath mask and covered most of my hair, but it still isn't enough. Now I am on to the next step, rolling the walls. I hope to be able to get started on that today. We shall see what the day brings.

Going Away

Here I go. I am nearly ready to leave for the weekend. I plan on going out of my mind doing scrapbooking. Maybe in losing my mind I will find some sanity to be able to cope with my life when I come back. We all need a break once in a while. I'm taking mine.

Pictures

I print my digital photos at home. My printer has been on the fritz for a few days. In a panic to get my photos done for this coming weekend, I went to my parents house on Friday. My dad is wonderful and let me print around 250 photos there. He then gave me ink cartridges for my printer so I could continue at home. I was able to do about 100 before those cartridges gave out. Again, in a panic, I called my dad and he came down on Monday and fixed the printer up for me. I now have a continuous ink system for the printer so I don't worry about cartridges getting empty or wasting ink on cleaning the heads. I can see how much ink I have. The ink is very reasonably priced. (Dad has given me a supply to last me for may a print job.) I buy the 4 x 6 photo paper and edit the photos here on my computer. I don't have to sit in a store and choose which shots I want. I can reprint anything I want at any time. I love this system. Sadly, I still need to print around 8 months worth of pictures. Good news is, I have been able to print all the photos from my vacation to California and North Dakota from last year. I must be crazy for printing so many pictures. My mom was looking at them and noticed that most of these pictures aren't meant for going on the wall. They are memory pictures. I will remember where we were, what we were doing, and how much fun we had simply by looking at these photos. What a wonderful invention. Now I just have to go buy more paper. Oh well, it's worth it.