Basement Turned SciFi

So...the moral of the story is: Do Not leave your sprinkler on next to the foundation overnight!

We found our carpet all squishy at 10:30pm on Thurs night because of the water being left on [by me] overnight the night before.  I'm so glad we found it when we did.  It could have been much worse.  We decided the next day to just bite the bullet and hire people to come and dry it out.  We wanted to make sure there would not be mold from moisture in the walls or on the floor.  There was water all along the entire west side of our basement.  We didn't want to take chances.  

So, our basement turned into something that looked like a science fiction film.  They put tubes blowing hot air into the sheetrock on the walls.  I'd never seen anything like it before.  So strange but I'm glad to know our walls will be OK.  They also put fans under the carpet making them look like a wave and had the biggest dehumidifiers I had ever seen.

We still need to have the carpet pad replaced and put the rooms back together, but they are completely dry now.  All of this mess in the middle of trying to complete our deck....ugg.

Grandpa-Sitting Weekend

This past weekend my parents went up North and dropped off my Grandpa at our house on the way.  As a 91 year old, it is difficult for him to be home alone.  So...we were "Grandpa-Sitting" for the weekend!  We had a good time.  There is a lot more 'prep' time required when you have a 1 year old and a 91 year old with you, but we worked it out.  

Since our basement was water-logged [I'll post more about that later], we went to Amy's apartment to watch the Twins on Friday night.  Unfortunately, we left (with a very tired 91 yr old and 1 yr old) after the ninth inning and didn't see them win in extra innings.  Oh well.

On Saturday we had a great time!  We brought my Grandpa to South Minneapolis to tour the neighborhood he grew up in and then we took him on the Light Rail for the first time!  He was so curious about the whole thing.  I think he really enjoyed it.  It was Tryg's first time too.  Tryg loves trains but it is much more difficult to get the concept of being ON a 'train' instead of seeing it from the outside.  After our 'train ride' we picked up my Great Aunt (my Grandpa's sister) Dee for lunch!  She's great!  She will be 90 this year, but you'd guess she's in her 70s the way she jokes around and moves on her feet.  It was nice to be able to have my Grandpa and his sister together.  They don't see each other as much as they used to.  I'm glad we could make that happen.

Sunday morning we went to church.  The church we've been going to had an outdoor service with a baptism and BBQ.  It was actually a very nice day for it and we enjoyed the service.  After church was mandatory nap time for everyone in the house!  It was perfect!  Then we had dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory with my parents for my Dad's Birthday on there way back home.  

We had a very nice weekend and I am very glad we were able to spend time with my Grandpa!  We try to see him at least once a month but that doesn't always happen.  I love his sweet spirit and hope I can be like him (or Aunt Dee) when I'm old and gray.

Happry Birthday Dad!!

Bracing for Inspection #2 {Literally}

We're making more progress on the deck...last night we completed everything we needed for the 2nd of 3 inspections!  WE PASSED!  Now, we just need to finish and do the final inspection.  We have a ways to go, but we're moving along now.

Yes, we gave our child a bucket of water to play with while we worked on the deck.

We can't thank Randy enough!  He he has been at our house every night this week working on the deck!  I think we are more tired than him [of course we have to run after a 2 year old all the time in addition to deck building and life in general].  But, seriously, I think he's definitely in the running for Father of the Year Awards coming up next weekend!  We SO appreciate the help and the know how!  We are very excited to have our deck!

**In other news, I forgot the sprinkler right next to the front of the house and left it on overnight.  We found out late last night that the water came into our basement.  I pretty much feel horrible!!  We sucked up a bunch last night and Erik was able to get a crew there today.  I hope. in the end. that we don't lose much money or belongings.  Just a forgetful mistake and now water in half of the basement!  Yikes!

My First {Little} Garden

I've been wanting to make a little garden on the side of our house for a few years.  As with most things, I have had great intentions!  I bought seeds each spring for the past 2 years.  I even started plants in pots in our kitchen a few times.  They would start out great but then shrivel up within two to three weeks. 

So, this weekend, I finally did it!  I fixed up the side of our garage where the garbage cans go and now we have a little garden there too.

If any of you actually garden, you'll notice that I probably have WAY TOO MANY veggies in a 2'x6' space.  I'm going with my friend, Doug's theory.... The plants that make it will be really strong because they will have had to fight all the other plants to survive.  It's the first try....we'll see what happens.

 

Thank you to Erik for wrangling Tryg while I was playing in the dirt!

(The patio stones are creating a flat surface for our garbage cans -I'll need a few more but it will be nice to have a space for them that is not on a pile of mulch!)

Making Progress

Thanks to all the help from our friends and family, 

we are making progress on the deck!

Before.

Brad digging holes for footings.

That was hard work but we didn't get deep enough, so we had to rent the power auger!

Footing holes approved by inspector...next step, filling forms with concrete!

On Saturday we had a big crew to help fill in around the footings, get the ledger on the house and put up the beams.

Putting the beams together.

Beams are in place!

Now, we start on the joists.

Tryg wants to get in on the action!  He likes to measure.

Joists are in and now we added the end joist.

So, it turns out there are a lot of steps involved in creating a deck.  

We still have some work ahead of us, 

but we can actually see the deck platform now!  

I'm excited!

In Process....

So, we have some pretty major projects going on at our house right now.  You can tell by the dust, plastic coverings and the complete and utter mess our house as been for the last 2+ weeks!  Hopefully we'll be working only on the outside very soon though.  At least then we can remove the plastic covers and some of the sheetrock dust!

We are adding a door out from our kitchen into the backyard.  We are also having sheetrock put up on the top half of the fireplace (you may recall from this post).  I am SO excited that things are actually happening!!  Erik and I both have a hard time getting things started and then completing them [I tend to blame him more for this].  I think I blame him because it seems to drive me crazy to have projects that we have not even started or are stuck at a half way point.  I don't know if it bothers him or not, but it doesn't seem to.  I think that makes me even more crazy! 

We'll need to do a little painting and some finish work inside and then we can focus solely on the outside.  The door from our kitchen will soon {I hope very soon!} open onto our new deck!  The door and deck plans have evolved, actually quite rapidly from the first stages.  We have known that we've always wanted a door out from our kitchen [even before we bought the house] because, until now, the only way to get to the backyard is to go through the garage.  

At first we thought we'd go in stages...

1.  Door with steps down to yard.  

2.  Bigger platform out to stairs so we have a little bit of a landing before stepping down.  

3.  12x12 deck off the back.  

4.  Pergola on the deck (or at least in the backyard).  

5.  Bigger deck.  

6.  Screened in porch off the back.  

7.  Three season porch.  

8.  Four Season additional room off kitchen.

Well, one thing led to another and we have now jumped to stage 5!  You know how it goes... "if we're going to do ______, we might as well do ________."  We figured we might as well do a platform if we're going to do stairs.  Then we thought we'd do a 12x12 deck if we're going to do the work of digging footings for a platform.  After we measured out 12 feet by 12 feet, we thought it looked a little small.  So, then, of course, if we're going to dig footings for a 12x12 deck, we might as well dig one more and add a little more wood!  Then, we thought, we might add the porch at some point too.  So, we actually dug extra footings and bought extra wood to make the deck foundation strong enough to add a roof later.  And heck, while we're at it, lets add a pergola on the top!  So, a lot of planning, sketching, phone calling, internet searching, and stopping at the City of Roseville Permit Office took place and now we're in the process of adding a deck!

We still have a lot of work to do, but we've got a good start thanks to friends and family over this past weekend.  Now that the ledger is in and beams are up, we hope it will move a little faster.

Door County Half Marathon

Erik and I went to Door County last weekend with friends, Jake and Tess, while Tryg stayed with Gramma Sue and Bompa D. [Thank You for taking him for the weekend Sue & Randy!!]  Apparently he didn't even ask about us. (I'm a little sad about that but glad that he had a great time without us!)

We went up on Friday afternoon and stayed at Jake's parents' lovely home overnight [Thanks for hosting Tim & Julie!!] so that Erik and Jake could run the Door County Half Marathon on Saturday morning.  They did great and finished in the time they were planning.  They even ended by holding hands across the finish line (in true Jake & Erik fashion).  The weather ended up being perfect!  And Tess and I enjoyed mapping out our route in order to see them at as many different points as possible.  We almost missed them (a couple times) and figure we walked at least 3 to 4 miles that day ourselves (I'll admit it, I was sore that night and the next day from all the walking --but I couldn't complain too much...the guys RAN 13.1 MILES!!)

We celebrated after the Half Marathon with a few Cinco de Mayo parties and Mexican food in Sister Bay.  We got to stay right on the lake that night at Jake's Grandma's cottage.  We were able to {at least we tried to -but we're too used to being on "Tryg Time"} sleep in the next morning.  We walked to a cute little coffee shop and back, then stopped at a brunch buffet on the way out of town.  Yum.

Tess used our camera to get some great shots of the race:

Jake even grew/shaved a "special mustache" for the occasion.