Progress in pictures. Part 1.

K helped me a lot over the last 10 days or so. Over the next few days, I will be posting pictures of some of the projects we worked on. The first project was part of my craft area. The Hubster and I got a couple of really pretty oak cupboards on Craigslist for an unbelievably low price of $100 each about a year ago. I knew the moment I saw them that I wanted them for the craft area.

They were solid oak and had been used in some sort of a medical situation. The shelves and drawers all had labels inside. I peeled off labels that said anything from 'adult diapers', to 'chux pads' and 'catheters', knowing I would replace those labels with labels of my own. I'm really looking forward to healing enough from the surgery that I can start sorting my craft supplies and putting them in their places. It will be fun to get it all put away and labeled according to how I want it labeled.

After all the caulking and painting in the family and workout rooms were finished, The Hubster helped me move the craft cupboards in the place we had in mind for them the moment I saw their picture online. We had bought some solid oak shelves that were darker in color than the cabinets to put between them but we weren't sure how we were going to mount them. We had a few options.

We could try to install those metal shelf bracket things on the wall between the cabinets and make them adjustable. The problem with that, though, was that the only stud between the cabinets fell in the center. We were concerned that the weight of the shelves and contents would be enough it would pull the thing out of the drywall, if we used drywall anchors. So that option was off the table.

We figured we could use metal brackets. We'd screw the brackets into the shelving and into the sides of the cupboards, but that gets expensive. We'd need 16 screws and 4 brackets for each shelf. And while we could weather the expense the problem really comes with having 4 screw holes in each cupboard for each shelf we put up.

I decided on the last option. I took a 1x2 and cut it into 10" pieces and screwed them on the sides of the cupboards. Using my grandfather's level, we made sure the shelves were straight and then put the other furring strip on the other cupboard. It all went smoothly with K's help, but the color of the 1x2s really stuck out. It wouldn't work at all. So I took the Old English to them, and they looked like they were part of an overall unit. It was perfect!
As you can tell in this picture, the boards looked like they were meant to be a part of a bigger piece of furniture. And of course, I had to have my grandfather's level in the photo. He would have been so proud of me for not being too intimidated to do the work I've done just, because I'm a girl. That makes me really happy. Just like using his level.

This is how they looked when we were all done...I am so ready to start using them! I'm so very happy with how they turned out, and I look forward to many years and many hours of crafting with my girls down there.

And as hard as it was at the time that the pipe burst and flooded our basement, it's one of the best things that has ever happened to us.

I am thankful for that blessing in disguise.

Very. Very. Thankful.

Gobble Gobble.

Bugster, Bubster and Frank came over for dinner today for Thanksgiving. It was wonderful getting to see them. It's funny and sad how time seems to speed by when we get the opportunity to have them over. We wouldn't miss it for the world, though.

We split the menu, so neither of us was totally overwhelmed with preparing the food. It seemed to work out well, and the food was delicious. I think we'll probably do this for holiday meals from now on. Holidays can just be so stressful, and I think anything that can bring down the stress level is good. It just makes things more enjoyable for everyone, and today was definitely enjoyable.

K and I were able to get a lot accomplished this last week. I will be writing about it and posting pictures in the next few days. Hopefully, I'll be able to do it when I'm more awake than I am now. Maybe tomorrow.

Right now, I'm going to bed thankful for more things than I can even count.

I am incredibly blessed.

Eww gwoss!

So. I've been asked a couple of times, if I really did fall asleep when I wrote this post the other day, or if I was just pretending to fall asleep for the post. The answer is that I did indeed fall asleep. Several times while writing that post, in fact, as one can tell by the repeated letters.

I really do try to be as honest on this blog. I need to be as real as possible with myself, or I'll likely fall back into old habits and start hoarding again. So even when I write about things that really don't have anything to do with the overall hoarding picture, when I'm being goofy, there's truth in what I'm saying. I owe it to myself.

Now that that has been cleared up...

I had to go in for my pre-op visit today with my doctor. I have 2 more appointments tomorrow. When I get home, K will come over again to help me get things finished up. We got a lot done downstairs today - got the shelves put up between the craft cabinets, got several boxes unpacked, sorted and put away, replaced an electrical outlet, and leveled the craft tables as best we could. They're not very level, but between the concrete floor being lumpy in places and the fact they're sitting on carpet on top of said floor, we weren't expecting much. I'm not exactly sure how I'll get them level in the long run, but thankfully it's not something we need to figure out for awhile.

We haven't done any trim around the windows to make them look finished yet. I was hoping to get to it before I get laid up, but I don't think that's going to happen. However, we need to at least try to get them a little more weather proofed. They're cheap little single pane aluminum windows that have no insulating factor at all. So I decided to vacuum them out. Right before I got the vacuum up there, I noticed a spider in the corner of the window.

It's body shape was like that of a black widow, but the color was all wrong. It was more of a creamy yellow, but the thing that surprised me was the marking on its back. It looked like a little flower made of dots. I'm not sure, if it's a poisonous spider or not, but I wasn't taking the chance. I vacuumed it up. I don't like spiders in my house. I like trying to relocate them outside even less.

I did take a picture of its back, though. Does anyone else notice a flower pattern, or is it just me?
Better yet, anyone have any idea what kind it is? It looks like it ate well judging by the insect carcasses piled up under it.

:::shudder:::

I probably should not have posted about a spider right before bed. Hope I don't dream about them.

:::double shudder:::

Asleep at the keyboard again.

I ache tonight, but it's worth every single twinge of pain I feel!

Well. Maybe it's not completely worth losing the table saw today but pretty darn close.

Yep. I caused the motor on the table saw to seize up. It's dead. I was cutting a piece of wood, and it got caught, and I took too long to pull the wood out or shut the saw off, and it just stopped. Seized up. And a small waft of black smoke drifted across the porch. I tried to turn it on several times after that, but there was nothing but the click of the switch. I doubt I'll be able to get the motor fixed or replaced cheaply enough to justify it. I mean, if it costs almost as much to replace/fix the motor as it would to buy a new one with a warranty or more than a used one, then it really doesn't make sense. Thankfully, we didn't pay anything for the saw, and we got several year of use out of it before it went belly up. We'll put it with the metal recycling we have, if it's beyond repair.

But the good news of the day?

Hopper had an incredibly good day at school. It's the first time this week she's not been stressed out at school. We gave her a second Theanine this morning before school. It helped her have a normal day. The poor little thing. I can't imagine walking around in a state of anxiety all day long, day after day with my heart racing, my palms sweating and not being able to think of anything but what was making me nervous. It has to be completely awful. We'll be giving her a second Theanine daily until I get home from the hospital and am feeling substantially better. I hate to see her suffer over things like this that just can't be helped.

The other good news? Yeah. K came over again today. We worked 8 hours straight and got lots done. The shelves for the cubbies under the stairs and the cubbies for over the stove and refrigerator have all been primed to paint tomorrow. I did some sanding on the doorways down stairs, and got the first of 2 coats of paint on them to finish them up. And K got the workout room almost completely caulked. We were busy.

And tonight I'm tired. I keep falling asleep as I'm writing. I suppose that means I need to just hit "publish" and go to bed.

We have another long day planned for tomorrow.

Progress of the tangible kind.

So. K came over again today, and we got enough done that I'm thrilled.

We got the cubbies that will go above the stove and refrigerator built again. I'm thrilled. Because the MDF was thinner than the shelving we'd used initially, I was able add an extra cubby, so we can use all 6 baskets instead of only 5. That will be nice. The fit is a little tight, but I am okay with that. The baskets will slide freely out of each area, and I really do need the 6th spot, so I'm quite happy with it all.

We were also able to get some shelves cut to put in the bottom half of the coat closet. The coat closet's floor is angled, because it sits above the stairs. It's a pain. There's a major lack of storage, and we need some shelves to be able to store the girls shoes and the box of gloves, hats and scarves. During the summer months, they're stored on the top shelf, but I need it more accessible now. It's nice for Hopper and Scooter to be able to get their own things out and know where to put them away when they get home from school. Plus, there's no way my back can handle getting it down every day when they need gloves or a scarf for school.

We'll be installing the shelves tomorrow as well as finishing up the caulking downstairs. Once the caulking is done, the only thing we'll have left to do in the basement is touch up painting where we patched holes. Well, it's all we'll be doing before I go in for surgery. We have crown moulding left over that we're thinking of installing in the hallway as well as new baseboards for Hopper's room. Thankfully, all of that can wait until we have a bit more time. The rest is what's so important to get done as soon as possible.

We'll be painting the cubbies and shelves on Thursday or Friday when it's a bit warmer outside and installing them this weekend. I am so excited that I'll have the storage back in the kitchen that I gave up a year ago. I'm seriously over having boxes of stuff sitting around.

And just in time for Thanksgiving.

Yay!!

The end is near.

Today has been a long but productive day.

I spoke with the school to reschedule Hopper's IEP staffing. We had to cancel the first two appointments, because the kids were sick. Exploding gastrointestinal issues aren't conducive to getting out of the house for a meeting. We got the letter on Saturday saying that the final date we could have the staffing was the day I was going in for surgery. But of course. I explained how critical it is for us to have this particular staffing, because Hopper ages out of the program either in May or December of next year, and the date hinges on what happens at this meeting. I got a call at the end of the day. They made a special appointment for us 10 days after I have surgery. Hopefully, I'll be feeling well enough to go by then, but at least The Hubster will have the time off to attend, if I can't. It's quite the relief.

I also got a call from the school saying Hopper wasn't feeling well and had a headache and claimed her ears hurt. I went down to the school to pick her up, and she started crying. She didn't want to come home. She asked to take ibuprofen. I asked, if it was okay, if we tried the ibuprofen out to see, if it worked. They were okay with it, so I went home. I called back 45 minutes later, and she was apparently doing fine.

However, an hour after that the school called again. She apparently had taken a turn for the worse, and she totally freaked the teacher and aides out. When I got there to pick her up, they had her sitting in a wheelchair, and she was all slumped over. They kept talking about how they'd never seen her like that before, and they were quite concerned. They said she complained about her back hurting and that her leg or knee were also hurting her.

I absolutely believe they were very concerned about her. However, I also think she had their number. When she got out of the car, she didn't limp, and she ran downstairs when we got home to see a young woman who had come over to help me out. There appeared to be no pain at all. However, she has been asleep since shortly after she got home, so she definitely isn't feeling well. She just isn't on death's door or in need of a wheelchair. I think she's constipated and doesn't know how to say what that feels like, so it's manifested itself as a headache, ear ache, back ache and sore knee all in the course of a few hours today. We'll keep her home tomorrow and see how she does. She'll go back to school Wednesday, if she's feeling better.

We'll leave the wheelchair out of the entire equation.

The young woman, K, who was helping me out today is a year younger than Hopper. We've known her and her family for most of her life, and I just can't say enough wonderful things about all of them. I needed some help with getting as much done downstairs as possible, so I can relax knowing it's all done before I have surgery. It's the stuff that's kills my back to do on my own. Hubster and I talked about it, and we figured it was worth paying someone to help me get as much done as possible, so we can get rid of the pod and the payment we're making on it each month.

I am beyond excited! K and I worked downstairs today, and we got so much accomplished. The trim work (crown moulding, baseboards and trim) that we've only worked on sporadically for the last year has finally met it's match. K filled the last of the nail holes with putty and she filled gaps between the crown moulding and corner boxes. I worked on filling gaps, too, but I only did one of the corner boxes. The rest of the time, I was caulking the door trim.

The original door trim that we replaced must have been slightly different in thickness. It was wooden. What we replaced it with was the MDF stuff. It could also be that we just weren't sure of what we were doing, but let me just say there were gaps. I used a paintable caulking, so we can go over it all with paint, so it doesn't show, when we're all done. But I am absolutely thrilled and amazed!

The caulking makes everything looked finished. It makes it look like The Hubster and I knew what we were doing when we installed the trim. And it makes it look like the gaps weren't our fault. They've disappeared! Finally, after all this time, I feel like we're going to be able to finish the basement before I go in for surgery. I am so excited!

Tomorrow, K and I will be working on some shelving, since we have to use the saws outside, and it's supposed to be warmer. Once we get done with them, we'll go back downstairs and work on the trim. Then hopefully, we'll be able to work on painting the shelves later in the week when it's warmer. I'm just so excited that we're making such good progress.

The end is in sight!!