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Big Giant Hole
Kenmore required us to put in a big giant manhole when we connected to the sewer. Think I am kidding? Here is the hole from Gigi’s future bedroom window:
You see, it is deeper, longer and wider than a car, and those are real men standing there, just for scale. And just so you know, the hole is in the middle of the neighbor’s driveway, so they had no access to their house while the hole was being dug and the manhole installed. Here is another view from the driveway:
Huge giant hole. Think our neighbors love us yet? I have to say, they have all been extremely tolerant and kind as we have been going through the house building process. I also have to say that the guys from Bayshore, the gentlemen who are doing the work here, are incredible men, capable, flexible and reasonable. The hole was filled in after five days’ time and the driveway has been given back to our neighbor, new gravel and all, and our yard was re-graded and readied for a lawn. Yahoo! Next week they will be back to pour our concrete driveways, porches, and back step. Closer and closer to the finish…
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Before and After
I can tell we are close to having a finished house. Do you know how I know? This past weekend I offered to come to the house to do some clean up. I was cleaning up for the next step, drywall and insulation! Wahoo! The house looked a little like this pretty much in every room:
Sawdust everywhere, of course, along with the odd wrappers for various building materials, hunks of wood, nails upon nails, and random pieces of plastic. I swept, vacuumed picked up and filled 8 garbage bags full of construction debris for about 7 hours. At the end, the house looked like this:
Fresh, clean, and ready for the insulation and drywall folks who should make their appearance sometime next week!
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Water Inspection
We passed the water inspection! We now have running water at our house!
It should be noted that my talented husband who has no formal plumbing training did ALL of our plumbing. AND passed the first time. Amazing!
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Spring
The blue skies and birds have returned. Every morning I hear the spring birdsongs as I leave for work. I am embracing an early spring!
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The Hills Are Alive… With HM and T-Swizzle
Gigi has discovered music. And I mean discovered music in that way where you seal yourself in your room and turn it up LOUD kind of way. I asked her, once, why Jude can’t come in to dance too. Gigi replied, “Mom, I need privacy to ROCK OUT!”
At the tender age of four, Gigi’s eyes and ears landed on Hannah Montana, that Mecca of preadolescent pop music. We denied her. We said she was too little for Hannah Montana and diverted her to Princess Tea Party music and Disney soundtracks. Then came kindergarten. I am not sure whether or not the girls in Gigi’s class give a fig about Hannah Montana, but we finally relented after two years of resisting and let her listen, watch, and gyrate to Hannah. She was in love. The best song? The Best of Both Worlds. The best show? The one where the hick cousin comes to visit and is mean to Miley (who is the real Hannah by the way; apparently and blonde wig is all it takes to totally hide your identity). We were all shocked at how quickly our girl was sucked into the Hannah Montana obsession.
Hannah’s discs got scratched (oh-so-sad) and the computer in Gigi’s room broke (no more episodes as I am not watching the tripe on the main TV) and Hannah fell to the wayside. While Hannah is still in Gigi’s top two, another songstress has entered the ring: Taylor Swift. The first time Gigi heard ‘You Belong to Me,’ Gigi screeched, “Mama, I like this song!” While I am not a huge Taylor Swift fan, I find her much more palatable than Miss Montana.
We bought the CD, Fearless, half price at the Everett Mall where a record store was going out of business. With our minimal exposure, I was not sure what to expect. We popped the disc in and were nonplussed. But you know how if there is only one CD in the player then you listen to it way too much and it grows on you and you know pretty much every word to every song on the thing? That has happened. Plus we you-tubed her videos and watched her on the Grammys. That helps to build a fan.
The other day it was probably 50 something degrees out, not a cloud could be found, and the sun was shining its glory down. We were on our way from point A to point B and Taylor Swift was in the player. We rolled down the windows and sang our hearts out as loud as we could. ‘She wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts, she’s cheer captain and I’m on the bleachers.’ It was a moment, well if you count five replays of the same song a moment. Like I said, it is not necessarily my thing, but I was loving that my daughter and I were in this moment of togetherness, singing in as one, embracing the day. She’s my girl.
Fresh Comments
9th Jan 10
My brother is 7 years younger than me and always wanted in my room. One day when I was reading ...
19th Nov 09
where can i get a vest like jude's to add to my collection?
15th Nov 09
VERY exciting to see this update. WOW! Can't wait to see it!
13th Oct 09
She's lucky to have such an insightful mama!
11th Oct 09
I am astounded at how quickly this is coming together!! Wahoo for a roof over your head!