“Gra-ma” visits!

A week ago today my mom left after spending that week helping to take care of Ewan!  By the last day Ewan would call her “Gra-ma!”  Beyond that, he was only saying Mama, Dada, and okay often and sometimes bye-bye and ball (“bahw”).  (Now he also says bath.)

I spent a good chunk of time helping at my old job (they have a big move coming up) or at home while my mom loved on Ewan, moved around our furniture, and stained our front deck!

She built this desktop to go over the top of two filing cabinets.  She made it to match the dining table which my parents made from an old huge desktop finished with the same color stain for the top and black legs.  It looks great – and will look better once we use it to get organized!

the new desktop

our dining table

My mom also painted some unfinished wood above our fridge with primer so it wouldn’t stand out so much.  While she was up on the ladder, Ewan decided he should climb it, too.

I knew the day would come when this would happen (the ladder was just in the right place to enable him)…

Thank you mom for all your help taking care of Ewan and doing little projects!  Ewan loved his time to be spoiled by Grandma Kay.

Celebrations and Peace

Life has been (and will be) a bit crazy.  I’m trying to catch up because I missed a couple important things.

Two Fridays ago we had a bunch of friends from in town over to celebrate the many blessings we’ve had this last year.  In chronological order some of the big ones…

God healed my body a year and two weeks ago(mid-August) so that I could birth a child.

I found out I was pregnant (end of August) with a baby boy (mid-December)!

Joe’s work gave him a title change and raise. (They told him the day after we found out I was pregnant – it went into effect in December.)

God healed Joe’s dad (February).  We rejoice that Ewan knows both grandpas (and grandmas)!

We remodeled our bathroom – the last room without flooring in our house (February).  Now it’s one of the most relaxing places in our house.

We got to a stopping point on our house (first week of April).  It’s not done, but done enough to live in without feeling anxious.

We refinanced our house (all of April – closed the first week of May).  It appraised for $27,500 more than it had when we bought it!  That meant we owed less than 80% of the value of the home, so no more mortgage insurance ($94 a month) and the interest rate went down almost 2%.  The process cost much less than we had anticipated.

Baby Ewan was born (May 11th)!  Ewan was very healthy.  I recovered well.  The birth cost less than we had saved for.

Joe and I paid off all our student loans!  We are now debt-free*!  We were not expecting to be able to do this, but the cheaper birth and refi helped!

We looked back over our budget and realized that with some sacrifices (and Joe’s raise, no debt payments and lower mortgage) that I could quit my job and stay home with Ewan just as we had hoped for since before we were married!

Plenty of good reasons to have a party, right?

I had signed up with House Party, so thanks to them and Oscar Mayer (and their new 100% Angus beef hotdogs), we had plenty of hotdogs (as well as balls, frisbees and wienermobile whistles for the kids).  We also made some hamburgers and had an ice cream sundae bar with the works.

We were blessed to celebrate with many of our friends from church – I think the final count was about 60 adults and 20 kids!  So many times throughout the night I’d find myself just standing there smiling at all the people filling our home.  It was great.

How can you feel such great peace when you have 80 guests to feed and entertain at your house?  The day before I wasn’t even hoping for a peaceful feeling, I just hoped we wouldn’t run out of food and no one would get hurt.  But God blesses abundantly, and even the celebration of his blessings was a huge blessing.

Thank you to all of you who celebrated (and continue to celebrate) with us!

*Technically, consumer-debt-free.  But it feels completely debt-free.  We paid off our only credit cards 8 years ago.  We have been aggressively paying off student loans for 5ish years, but we just  paid off the last three (about $9,000 worth).  We still have a mortgage, but should easily be able to sell the house for much more than we owe if we needed to not be tied to it (the housing market here is much better than the rest of the country and there is always demand for homes so close to A&M Univ.).

a house without doors

In my head, I wrote a whole opening paragraph for a book with that title.  Like most things that come into my head lately, it is long gone.

What it really refers to is our latest project on the house – we literally have no interior doors attached to the doorways.  Only the exterior doors have ever had paint on them.  We replaced many doors when we moved in, and others the previous owners had replaced but not painted.  This means most were heavily stained (as in, with finger grease) and stark white.  Saturday and Sunday we worked hard to get the doors painted.  It took an incredible amount of time to remove all the doors, remove all the knobs and locks, tape the hinges, and get them moved outside to be painted.  Once everything was ready, the paint sprayer we were going to use leaked.  It took much longer, and we only got one coat on one side of most (not nearly all) doors.  Out of a whole weekend of hard work.  Frustrating.

Do you know how cold a bathroom is when there is no door and the shower curtain doesn’t reach the full length of the enclosure?  It’s cold.  Yesterday I blew a circuit with the heat fan and hairdryer on, trying to warm up and dry off.

Tonight some guys in our small group came and made good progress on painting the doors and the door frames.  Thank you!  Joe plans to put a few of the doors back on tomorrow.

Tomorrow we get to see some old friends who had moved away! I’m hoping that Thursday night I can take pictures of a door and (finally) the bathroom.  I know I’ve been saying bathroom pictures are coming for a while (mom), but here’s the deal.  It really is difficult because I need to find the before pictures (on a computer that is blocked in a room so that the doors could be removed) and then take after pictures from similar angles.  Then download and edit and upload them.  Hopefully I can find some old pictures of the doors so you can also see the difference there, too.

On a positive note, we’ve registered some for the baby room since I have a shower at the end of the month.  Tomorrow on my lunch break a couple of friends with babies are going to help me go back through the registry and pick things we will need.

I’m getting some very strong creative urges lately, and there are so many little projects (either non-house related or only decorative) I’d love to do before the baby comes.  All sorts of things, from songs I want to record to baby things I want to embroider.   I’m not sure how many (if any) of those will happen, but my new goal is to get the house in order (and keep it that way) so that I can feel more free to organize and get things ready for the baby room and less overwhelmed with disorder.

We had another doctor’s visit today, and it went well (I’m 27.5 weeks – entering third trimester).  Despite eating red meat almost every day, my iron levels are borderline low, but everything else looks good.  I’m measuring a week big, continued evidence that he might come early.  Less time to prepare sounds scary, but I’ve had enough pregnant friends to know that at that point I’ll be happy for him to come a little early.

That’s it for random venting tonight.  Thanks to all of you who read my ramblings even when there aren’t pictures!

I took a shower today!

In this!

(I only got one picture before my camera battery died, so you’ll have to wait for more later.  Also, ignore the green tape on the front of the sinks.)

quick sneak peeks – bathroom remodel

We still have a long list of things left to do on the bathroom, but it’s somewhat usable now!  We can use the sinks, tub, and toilet.  We have to wait another couple of days before we can seal the tile, and once that is done we can use the new shower.  There is still a decent amount of painting and caulking to do, but here is a sneak peek at the shower / tub.

before

now (shower area 6’7″ x 3’6″)

a close-up of the tub faucet

While I’m doing updates, Joe’s dad is now home (as of Saturday) and recovering from his hospital scare!  Thank you for your prayers.

updates (with bathroom pictures!)

We’re remodeling our bathroom – I just wanted to put that out there quickly in case someone was wondering what “bathroom pictures” implies.  Here’s an update on my last post.

—–

Joe’s dad is doing well.  Joe posted some about it, so you should check that out.  We’re hoping that he gets moved today from ICU into IMCU (Intermediate Care Unit).  He still needs a small nasal tube with oxygen to keep his O2 levels up, but it seems like he is otherwise improving.  Yesterday he stood and took a few steps several times.  If he gets to switch rooms, I think we won’t have restricted visiting hours (currently 6 specific hours a day) and will have a bathroom.  Praise God that he is restoring Tom’s health.

One part that I’m especially grateful for God’s hand is the issue of sedatives.  When we first visited, he would start to stir a little or open his eyes and immediately a nurse would give him more sedative.  They said he was agitated originally, but seemed to be overdoing it with the drugs.  In short, half the drugs they were giving him were only because of side effects caused by sedatives (and also affected his already weak heart).  Our small group prayed for many related things, but also this specifically last Tuesday (hours after we had seen him given more drugs for moving his shoulder – his arms and hands were in restraints).  I remember one man prayed that God would speak directly to Tom’s spirit and give him peace.  Wednesday morning the doctor said he wanted to try reducing the sedation – our impression the day before was this was not at all being considered!  Tom took to it well, and was calm even though being in the ICU is quite disorienting.  By Thursday morning he was completely off any sedation (and the ventilator!) and able to talk with family members.  I feel like I could write a twice as much about so many aspects of Tom’s healing, but use this one as an example and praise God for what He’s done.

We got to visit Friday night and Saturday morning – read Joe’s post for more on that.  For the first time ever, I saw Tom cry, and I definitely cried with him.  He was overcome by the love so many “good people” (his words) had shown him in the hospital.  It was clear he’d been thinking about our baby a lot.  The funniest part of that is that he earnestly tried to talk Joe into shaving off his beard for the baby.

—–

Okay, bathroom pictures.  It’s been going less-than-good, but progress has been made over the last week and a half. (See, I can make a post without complaining)  A week after it was planned to happen, we finally got the green tag plumbing inspection this afternoon!  On a related note, my “be careful – this person has no problem with / remorse for telling lies” list has gained another member. (Correction: I can make a post without complaining much)  Now we can cover the walls with sheetrock or tile and make some headway.  Here are some more pictures with hints at what is to come.

Our bathroom from the doorway pictures:

1/8/10: original (the sink is on the right closest to the camera and the tub/shower opposite the toilet)  Yes, the floor has been like that since we bought the house – a year and a half ago.  We covered it with bath rugs.

1/13/10: gutted with new plumbing almost done, new window, and no more partial wall.

1/19/10 (this morning): tub deck support built (there will be a cultured marble tub deck), tub seated (soaker tub 6′ long x 20″ deep!), new tub light, moved heat/vent/light, cabinets installed (to immediate left), hardibacker tub surround and floor ready for tiling, toilet drain ready (sticking out of the floor on left), and sink plumbing ready (off camera to the right).

The bathroom sink had been rigged so that the supplies and drain were coming from the tub.

The plumber added new supplies (for two sinks now!) and proper drain / vents.

My Uncle Tony builds custom cabinets for a living (including the cabinets at James Avery stores), and he built us some cabinets and a bathroom vanity for essentially what it cost him!  The vanity has to wait on the tile floor to be installed, but I’ll leave you with a look at the (unpainted) floor-to-ceiling cabinets:

what has been going on lately

I’ve got 6 posts in my draft folder that are either ready to post or I just need to add pictures to, but things have been quite crazy lately.

Monday morning on the way to work, Joe’s mom called and said his dad (Tom) was in the ICU.  He had woken Joe’s mom at 1:30am saying he could hardly breathe and needed to go to the hospital.  We went to work and waited for the doctor’s update.  It came around 11am, and they said that Joe’s dad was near death, with just hours left.  A list of problems originally included severe congestive heart failure, respiratory failure, pulmonary edema, kidney failure, and double pneumonia.  Tom’s heart was hardly functioning at all and his lungs were at 35%.  We left work, threw some clothes in a suitcase, and headed for Houston.  Just before we got there, Tom’s cardiologist (who he had just been in to see Friday, with nothing serious seeming to be on the horizon) said he felt like Tom would recover.

Joe’s parents

When we arrived Monday, Tom had been heavily sedated and was on a ventilator.  They figured out that there was another infection (besides pneumonia), and by Tuesday midday that was the primary concern.  They started a culture Monday and should be able to identify what it is Thursday (and then know how to proceed with treatment).  They did start him on three antibiotics Monday and then an anti-viral Tuesday when the infectious disease specialist got put on the case.  The whole time the doctors / nurses stressed that he was still in critical condition, and even though his condition hadn’t changed much, he was not stable.

Tuesday night Joe and I made the hard choice to return home.  It’s only 2 hours away and we’re keeping our bags packed.  There is a LOT of family staying in Houston to help and be with Joe’s mom and sister.  Our church small group meets Tuesday nights, and we made it there late.  They spent a lot of time praying over us and Joe’s family and dad.  It was such a good thing for us, and I told Joe that even if we had to drive back to Houston first thing in the morning, it was well worth coming home and hearing the prayers, encouragement, and faith of our church family.

There was not much of an update today – the doctors were elusive.  One good report is that they reduced the amount of sedatives they were giving him!  The sedatives cause other health problems and lead to more and more medication, so we’re glad that the doctors decided to try reducing the dosage.  We think that they starting weaning him off the ventilator as well, so maybe now he is not 100% dependent on it.

Joe and I both went to work today (Wednesday), but came home at lunch time.  We were both feeling worn out and tired (even though we did sleep in Houston while we were there).  We slept from 12:30 until 4:00!  I hope Joe’s family in Houston is able to take breaks to rest, especially his sister who is a school teacher (can you imagine 2nd graders all day while getting doctors calls and going to the hospital every free minute?).  Also, we buried Joe’s grandmother just three weeks ago, and a month of hospital ICU visits are fresh on the family’s mind (especially Joe’s mom).  His mom has recently lost her mom, and years ago lost her brother and her oldest daughter, and now her husband is in the ICU.

Please join us in praying for Tom’s recovery.  We are praying in faith for healing.  Pray that the family can have hope beyond trust put in the doctors, hope for God’s hand to heal Tom, and true belief that could happen (including open eyes to see it when it does happen).  I have a mental image of a photograph of Tom holding his first grandson (our baby due early May).  Pray that picture will get to be taken.

——

My parents are in town right now, from last Friday until this coming Monday.  We are remodeling our bathroom and have had this planned for months.  I’m sure there will be a before / after post at some point, but here is what it looks like right now:

The plumber ran into some trouble (apparently the pipes were TOO strong under the house, and he spent hours chipping pieces apart to remove them) Monday, and came back today to finish (it’s now 8pm and he just left… and didn’t finish).  All the plumbing was supposed to be done Monday, so we’re behind schedule.  My dad has to go back to work, but my mom is going to stay next week to help us finish.  Oh, and when I say “we” are working… I mostly mean my parents with Joe’s help when he’s home.  Even though they were using masks / goggles / gloves for demo, I only got a few honorary hits of sheetrock and tile before being kicked out.

I get email updates about our baby’s development, and Saturday it said his hearing was improving and loud noises (they meant things like a dog barking) he is exposed to now probably will seem normal and not bother him as a baby.  So our son should like the sounds of breaking tile, air compressors, drills, saws, and randomly shouted expletives.

there’s a bathroom on the right

We did a lot of work on the bathroom in the add-on part of our house.  We had a plumber move the drain for the toilet, and we moved (and replaced) the vanity, sink, and toilet.  Here’s how the layout changed (that’s a step up into the bathroom by the door):

Sorry, architect-mom… the sad part is I wouldn’t have even had to get up to grab a ruler.  I remembered that I should draw an X on the shower, but I thought that may not be understood by the other four people in my general audience.  Then I used my real handwriting instead of drafters print.  I also felt the need to draw a faucet on the sink to make it look like a shocked face. :-O  I’m a little sleep-deprived right now. Hopefully my beautiful artwork helps you see the changes we made to the bathroom.

Thanks to some of our comgroup guys who helped remove carpet in the other room, demo the bath, and get started on tile.  Mark, you definitely have partial ownership of our toilet – I’ll try to get that on a certificate for you soon.  Thanks again to mom & dad for lots of hard work and ideas.  Mom, that rug you picked out fits our colors perfectly.

before (use the wall & outlet location location as a reference point):

after:

before from doorway:

after:

some of the things we’ve done:

• remove cabinet
• remove glued-on industrial tile flooring (very hard – I’d suggest just covering it)
• replace & move toilet (VERY involved – had to make adjustments to supports and subfloor)
• replace & move bathroom vanity, sink and faucet
• replace & move vanity lighting
• replace & move bathroom hardware (e.g. towel holder)
• replace & move mirror (woo hoo – $9 mirror from the ReStore)
• lay, grout, and seal tile floor
• paint & caulk (the caulking is a lot easier than I expected)
• add baseboards, replace trim

I tried to subtly sneak in this link all day, and failed miserably.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch Changes

The Peebles’ home has undergone some big changes lately!

Last night our friends Ryan and Chalyce (“Shuh-lease”) moved in!  The previous owners added on to the house to create a space for their grandmother to live.  It has two rooms and a bathroom, as well as a separate A/C unit.  About this time last year, David lived there for five or six weeks, but it wasn’t in great condition.  Most of the time we have it closed off and ignore it.  We just (mostly) finished it yesterday – putting hardware in the bathroom literally minutes before R & C arrived with trucks and friends helping them move.

We still have a few things to do there – touch-up paint, paint on all the doors (once we pick a color), stain the bathroom vanity, replace the showerhead (the one there still works), buy two more switch covers, replace the light cover on the bathroom fan, add door stops, and install a ceiling fan.  Believe me, that’s (time-wise) a drop in the bucket compared to all we have done.

Special thanks to my mom and dad who came down last weekend to help us get the space ready!

On to the fun part – before & after pictures!  The before pictures are actually before the previous owners moved out and the after are before R & C moved in.  I’ll save the bathroom pictures for early next week so you have something to get you through the weekend. ;)  Once again, the green paint looks more minty that it actually is – you should just come see it.

bigger room, view one:

bigger room, view two:

smaller room originally:

smaller room when David moved in:

smaller room now:

(We will eventually replace the trim on the window, but we want to replace the entire window before we mess with the trim.)

Some of what we did to the space (not counting the bathroom):

• remove carpet
• remove bars near doors
• remove several shelves / cabinets attached to the walls
• remove baseboards and trim
• patch and texture holes
• replace door from little room to laundry with a more narrow door (fill space with drywall, texture that)
• change shelves in closet to hanging space
• replace broken door between two rooms
• replace all interior door knobs
• paint walls in both rooms
• pour two concrete steps (they were wood before)
• lay, grout, clean,and seal tile
• paint and install baseboards and trim
• finish baseboards / trim (fill nail holes, sand, and repaint)

Sneak Peak: Before & Now pictures!

Here’s a sneak peak at some pictures from before we bought the house vs. what it looks like now.

living room

piano nook

what our living / piano rooms look like now (ignore any weird angles, I was trying out the panoramic feature on my camera – click on it to see it bigger)…
Can you tell the difference?