Monday. Monday. So good to me.

At least I'm really hoping it will be. 

Monday is hopefully Hopper's last visit to the orthopedic surgeon. If he releases her to full weight bearing status on Monday, it will make things so much easier around here.

It will end the need for a wheelchair, the wheelchair ramp, the shower transfer bench, possibly the walker and best of all...it will end the need for the dreaded bedside commode!

Don't get me wrong. They've all served their purpose, and we're very, very grateful to have had access to each and every one of them. However, at this point, we are more than ready to be rid of all of them!

Hopper has been confined to the living room, dining room and the Scooter's bedroom. The main bathroom would have been available for her to use, except that we tore it apart back in April. We were hoping to get the shower, toilet, and floor redone before Bugster & Bubster's wedding in July. Guess what we didn't get finished before Hopper broke her leg?

The result of us not finishing the remodeling project has been multiple trips up and down the stairs with the commode bucket every day since she's been home. 

Lest one wonder, it's been just as fun as it sounds.

Another fun result of not having finished the bathroom remodel is the adventure that is getting her down the stairs to the shower. The wheelchair doesn't fit past the edge of the cabinet in the kitchen, so at this point in the journey, she uses the walker until she gets to the top of the stairs where she sits on her behind for the trek down. While we hold her left foot up, so she doesn't put any weight on it, she scoots down the flight of stairs. When she reaches the bottom, she uses the walker once again to get into the bathroom and onto the transfer bench in the shower.


We reverse the process to get her back upstairs and back into her wheelchair. It isn't nearly as physical a process for us as it was when she first got home from the hospital. She's able to help hold her weight more than she could then, but it's still exhausting.


To say it's been a bit disruptive to the norm of our everyday lives is an understatement, and we're all ready for things to get back to normal around here. 


Whatever *normal* is.

Untitled. Because I don't want to stretch my brain to think of a title tonight.

I'm so tired tonight. I should already be asleep, even though it's only 9:30.

I hurt all over. My fibro is in overdrive, but at least I've been working through the pain. I'll be working through it tonight again when I take a pain pill before I crawl under the covers. I think we're going to have to turn the heat up from 69 to 70. It's been okay for awhile, but the cold really makes me hurt more. I'm already looking forward to next summer.

K came over again today. We got an amazing amount of work done. We still have so much to do that it's overwhelming when I look at it like that. I just have to concentrate on what we've accomplished. We were able t to finish all the caulking on the hallway. It took the most time, because there were 3 smaller doorways and a rather large doorway to caulk around. Inside and outside of the frames. It looks fantastic!

We were also able to get over half the crown moulding caulked. Caulking around the includes caulking it at the top and the bottom where it meets the ceiling and wall. We were able to finish caulking at least 2/3 of the moulding in the family room. We'll have to finish the last 1/3 and then get the crown moulding in the workout room finished. The baseboards will need done, too, but they'll be the easiest to finish up. I'm just so excited at how finished everything looks. I'm anxious to get it all done.

It's supposed to be a bit warmer tomorrow, so we're going to try to finish cutting the shelving for the cubbies under the stairs, sanding them and getting the first coat or two of paint on them. I'm hoping we'll have time to finish up the caulking tomorrow, too. Then all we'll have very little left to do to finish up the basement.

I don't know, if we'll get to the point of finishing the window trim, and I highly doubt I'll have time to stain the oak door with the windows in it that will be installed between the family room and the workout room, but you never know. We actually won't be able to finish putting up the baseboards on either side of the wall that separates the two rooms until the door is installed. We may just have to wait awhile to get that done, and I'm okay with that.

Hopper had another rough day at school today. After talking with the nurse, we realized it's because she's nervous about me going into surgery in a couple of weeks. Poor thing. I wish there was more we could do to help her out. I'm so glad Mom will be here to help her be strong when I'm in the hospital.

I'm fighting a very slight sore throat tonight. And here I sit wide awake when I couldn't seem to keep my eyes open at 4:30 this afternoon. I honestly think I could have slept for a full 12 hours, if I'd given into the urge to sleep earlier and skipped writing tonight. But my blog is a priority. I need to write here daily to keep my focus on the big picture: that I am a hoarder and that I'm working to change that.

Besides. I'll get plenty of rest after my surgery.

Help! I don't like hum a dity!

The humidity has been horrible today. We've had heavy rains off and on and just a general thickness to the air. I don't like it when it's muggy. It makes it harder to breathe. Add the cold we have on top of it, and yeah. I'll just be glad when the sun dries up the humidity. Hopefully tomorrow. And I really am thankful for the rain. We needed it desperately. It just doesn't take much moisture in the air to feel like it's too much when one lives in a steppe climate.

Ok. I'm done with my whine. I've already finished my cheese. So..onto other business...

In spite of the humidity and overall blechness to the day, we got a little bit accomplished. The hubster and I finally installed all the light fixtures we bought almost a year ago for the basement. In fact, we just finished. They look so nice! They have an iron vine design that wraps around the light fixture. We got 5 fixtures plus a lamp all in the same design for less than $150 last summer. They were being clearanced at one of the local hardware stores, and we'd already decided that was the style we wanted, so we were thrilled when they went on sale so cheap. They should have cost us right at $300 total. It was a nice little savings for us.

Eventually, I'll get a picture up. Right now, though, I'm going to go relax with my wonderful husband and my trusty heating pad.

The powdered sugar has been retired to the freezer for when we need it again. Thankfully, my knee is back to normal.

Nothing tossed. Lots gained.

My eyes feel gritty and like they're full of sawdust, even though I was using goggles like a good girl when we were using the table saw downstairs today. I wore a mask, too. No sense in breathing in minute particles of MDF boards.

We were able to install the rest of the crown moulding today. Feeling very good about that! We have gaps in a couple of places, because we didn't do mitered corners. Instead, we bought little corner blocks like these, because we were too intimidated to try to cut the right angles and such. The blocks we used were like the ones in the bottom two pictures. In retrospect, I think we could probably have done it, but we really like the look of the corners the way they are, so we're happy this was the route we chose.

The thought would be that we'd only have to make a straight cut, and push the moulding up to the edges of the blocks so we didn't have to do any intricate cuts. The only problem with this logic is that our walls and ceiling are so not square! As a result there are gaps between the wall and the boxes in a few corners and a few more rather large gaps between the crown moulding and the corner blocks. We'd measure. We'd measure again. We'd cut. It wouldn't fit. The piece would be too long. So we'd shave a little off only to end up with a gap in the end. We realized after most all of it was installed that it had to do with the corners being out of square, and if we slid them in at an angle we could have them match almost perfectly.

At least we figured out how to patch the gaps today. It took several cuts to get the right width, but we just cut some slivers of crown moulding until we got the right size to stick in place. Once it was smoothed over with a little wood putty and painted, you can't even tell where it was patched. Finishing things up with a little bit of caulking, and the crown moulding looks like it's been there since the house was built. Well...about a 10' section of it does. Can you guess what I'll be working on this week?

Our oldest came over today and helped out. She took the Christmas tree down and put the decorations away. The corner of the living room looks bare, though. It's the first it's been empty in 16 months. No. Between the flooding basement, sewer problems and illnesses I'm ashamed to admit that we had not taken the Christmas tree down in over a year. I am beyond thrilled that it's down now, though!

While we didn't get quite as much done as we were hoping for (the treadmill and the pull-up machine are still where they were when I blogged last night), I'm satisfied with what we got done. I'm actually quite motivated. I know I'll be able to finish up filling the holes with wood putty and the caulking this week on my own. If I can also stain the door before Saturday, we should be able to get that installed and finish the baseboards next weekend. We have to wait for the final cuts on some of the baseboards until the door is installed and the trim is up, but it's finally starting to look somewhat finished. We even hid the cable for the television behind the crown moulding and in a channel coming down the wall. I'll paint it the same color as the wall, and it won't be nearly as noticeable as an ugly black cable would have been.

I know it's supposedly a no-no to put crown moulding in a basement. It supposedly makes the room look shorter, but we don't see that at all. Our basement is only 7.5' tall to begin with, and somehow the crown moulding seems to draw the eyes up, and the ceiling doesn't feel as short. It's also supposedly a no-no to put anything but the short 2.5" baseboards in a basement. We say pshaw! We went with the 5", and it looks great! I'll try to post pictures when we're finished.

No. I didn't get the last few papers filed from the empty box. I was distracted by the work we were getting done downstairs. I will do it tomorrow for sure when I'm taking a break and getting reacquainted with my heating pad.

Please make sure to ask me, if I actually got them done tomorrow! I need the accountability! :)

I loves me a heating pad!

So today was good.

Got a couple loads of laundry done, the dishes done, and most importantly, we got the rest of the crown moulding put up in the workout room downstairs. (It's back spasming work, I tell ya!) We also finished getting the treadmill put together. At this point, we'll be able to use the treadmill, even though the rest of the room isn't quite finished. That will be nice.

Tomorrow, we have a big day planned. It doesn't sound like much, but it seems to take forever! We'll be filling all the little nail holes in the crown moulding and baseboards, caulk around the edges, and paint any part of them that needs it, so the patches don't show. Then we're going to get the mat down under the treadmill and put it in place, and clean up hubby's pull up machine thing that's out on the back porch and bring it downstairs. We're also going to try to cut some extra shelves for a thing we got for him to use as a bookshelf. I don't know, if we'll get to the point of rewiring the outlets and putting up the light fixture or not, but we'll have plenty to do, and we'll have a room that will be ready to use! We're both really looking forward to it!

I asked my husband, if he would mind me sharing this, before I started writing...

This morning when I went in to wake my husband up I decided to count the books he has on the dresser. He said he realized he feels like he needs to have his books around him-that he doesn't know when he'll need the knowledge contained in the books, and he wants to have it at his fingertips. There were 56 books on the dresser. He also keeps books in his work truck, on his work desk and in his locker at work. We're both hoping that having a floor to ceiling area to keep his books will help. And I'm thankful beyond thankful that books are his vice, instead of alcohol, drugs, porn or other women. :)

We're now going to spend some time together relaxing.

Me with my trusty heating pad.

Him with the remote control ... and a book. :)