Improbable Things

Just keep moving...

Tonight is going well... I made Fresh Tomato Corn Soup (ala Laurel's Kitchen, the best cookbook ever) and finished the DC Sierra Club newsletter (not up yet), while Peterchen saty beside me in puppyhips. I love when they do that!

Today also saw the following accomplished:
Countertop templating done: For Corian, they use cool triangulation technology, where the guy places special tape with dots everywhere and they snap photos and then they use Autocad to make a perfectly custom counter. This is perfect for us since the walls are not exactly straight or even. They can make the countertop follow the walls, wherever they may lead. Very nice. The Corian guy was chatty and now I know all about his neighbor's porch addition and how they used to do all the templates with cardboard cutouts. Sounds...tedious.

Home Depot: For some filler to go between the fridge and DW. And to order a cabinet I forgot to get. Jarvis helped me again...he's always amazed when I come back in still pregnant. He'd like to be sent a birth announcement, although he assumes if he doesn't see me for a week or more, it'll prolly mean I've popped. He was sweet and said that if all his customers were like me, he'd still have hair.

Oil change: Snuck this in while I was at work. Love having the car place a block from the office.

Work: Work?! Isn't that supposed to be over? Well it is, mostly. I tied up loose ends for the afternoon and made web updates. I still have a book to produce, which is so freakin' unrealistic that I could laugh. But instead we pretend it'll all get done. Maybe it will.

And here's the most recent photos of the house progress. You might imagine a kitchen in there, eh? Tomorrow they tile the breakfast room.

And just 12 more days until the due date. Belly shot with sheepdog for scale:

Nice Business Cards..but...

The electrical has been a learning experience. Sadly, not in electricity or home repair, but in fraud and crazy people. The electrician I hired turns out to be one of the more interesting and least trustworthy people ever. Word of wisdom: Google Everyone! My co-worker ran a factiva search on him to get archived articles and the Post had a doozy of a write up in 1996. Dude, his own mother filed a suit against him for fraud! He's got check fraud schemes going back to the 80's. He's got ties to Marion Barry. He filed fraudulent papers at the courthouse releasing him from a court order to pay someone back. It's fraud on top of lies on top of hutzpah on top of just plain crazy!

Some choice quotes from the 1996 Post article: "At various times over the years, [B] has described himself as a minister, a consultant, a boxing promoter, a champion kick boxer, owner of [a] day-care center and operator of a[n investment] business." And now an electrician.

My favorite story was about being busted for running a club illegally out of his home:
"In May 1995, when D.C. police raided the house..., [B] denied that he was operating an illegal nightclub--even as a police captain observed a fully stocked bar and people holding tickets waiting to get inside.

"Captn [So and So] saw liquor being sold illegally in the house, which he said had a stage and dancing on one floor, video games and a pool table on another, and a kitchen where snacks were being prepared.

"When confronted, [B] denied that he was running a nightclub... He said it was a charitable fund-raiser for the police department...kept insisting that the 200 or so people in the house were personal friends, even after the captain pointed to a large banner stretched across the doorway that announced the opening of a new club."

So, we've lost several thousand to him and got bupkus for electrical work. I don't think we'll ever see a penny from him, which pisses me off royally, and now I'm stuck with the kitchen not wired for anything we need to install.

Is it weird that I'm oddly comforted that I wasn't taken by just any start-up conman, but a real pro. Or maybe I feel more stupid, because all this info was right there. But he had all the things we are told to ask for. Or as Lado, a man of unexpected wisdom, said, "Hmmm. But he had nice business cards."

Keeping Perspective

Oh yeah -- and I'm pregnant

Just in case people wonder if I forget. Of course I don't. At least not for long stretches of time.

(Bill takes pictures when I least expect it. Hence the totally adorable grimace.)

Today I got my very first belly petting. From the security lady at the Home Depot. Others complain that this is an invasion of their space, but it didn't bug me. She asked first and was totally positive. It made me smile.

And my friend at lunch noted that I don't walk like a pregnant lady. I don't, it's true. The working theory is that I was already accustomed to the extra weight and since I didn't gain a lot more, I'm just not as uncomfortable in my body. Who knows though. But wouldn't it be nice if there was some positive aspect of being a plus-sized pregnant lady?

But Schnecke is here with me, kicking, being a girl in a belly. I'm not sleeping as much as I once did, but I hear that's normal. I'm finding time to be chill (and blog) and I'm thinking about scraping together enough for an indulgent pre-natal massage and haircut. Or... I could go buy soem plumbing fixtures. Decisions, decisions!

Totally house obsessing

So much happening so fast! And I'm so in love with it! So I have to share. It's extremely rewarding to see two months of planning start to pull together.

Our guys arrived early again today and the day started with dogs. Lado with a different dog in tow - this one a 9 mo old Roddy named Sophia. Yesterday he brought Rocky (or Raki) who tromped on flowers, but was a good soul. I have mixed feelings about Rottweilers, but puppy Roddies are super cuddly! While we were all standing in the street making plans for the day, a neighbor came by looking for a lost dog, Hadley. I'd already met Hadley and his owner once, so I urged the guys to keep an eye out! (I doubt they did... but we saw Hadley and owner as we were leaving in the evening, so we know he was found and returned home safely.)

I tried to be helpful, but ended up just making sure I have several things to return to Home Depot. ::Sigh:: I got the wrong recessed lighting fixtures and one of the ceiling fans was broken in the box. So the electricians just kept on with the grounding and replacing switches and tracking where switches go, which isn't much to see but makes a HUGE difference. They also started pulling the bad wiring out of the exterior of the house. No picture, but imagine cheap wires staple-gunned to the plaster exterior. All coming off. Nice.

And the demo. We still LUV the demolition! They pulled out the Unnecessary Door and transformed the whole freakin' house in about 30 minutes. And then they broke tile for hours on end. Bill contractor-sat while I was at work (since I'm supposed to be avoiding the lead dust thing) and it sounded deafening whenever he rang me.

And, joy of joys, they found Lovely Undestroyed Hardwood floors in the Library! Ok, folks, wood in houses makes me all warm inside. The idea that we have decent hardwood in the whole house, that it has not been ruined, is just a treat! Even the door frames look like they could be stripped to show the original wood. I'm so hopeful!

Here's the whole In Progress Flickr recap.

All the while, Bill was on window rampage. He scraped and peeled and chiseled away at all of the painted up, gunked up windows. Mostly we just need them to hold together until we can get some of them replaced. He managed to reopen most of the windows in the breakfast room, nursery, and scrape all of the stickers off the windows upstairs (leftover legacy of a previous child inhabitant). Some of the windows actually had masking tape lost under layers of paint, that's how paint-mad the previous painters were. WHY oh WHY do people paint light switches, window jams, and other moving pieces? It's so freakin' destructive and lazy!

And lastly, the cabinets arrived. So if we get the sink, a few more light fixtures, and the microwave, I think we have all the pieces. If only countertops didn't take a week of waiting in the middle, this could be done in amazing speed!

Let the demo begin

So the demo and repairs began yesterday. Wow, demo is somehow gratifying. Bill noted that few houses could look so much better with so much dust covering them. But losing the one wall has already transformed the house.

We have quite a cast of characters working for us. Our general contractor is Czech and quite funny. We can't alway make out what he is saying, but he tends towards the fastidious, which in renovations is a great thing. His whole crew is Czech, so generally we can't talk with them much, but Lado runs a tight ship.

The electrician claims he was a body guard for Muhammad Ali and he and I wasted 2 hours talking about world travel and US politics on Friday when he came by to review the contract. You never know... could be. He (wisely) had his assistant, a guy from Ghana, start the work yesterday (or we'd have talked more!). Bill had the great honor of introducing this fellow to the wonder that is The Pretzel. He'd never had one before, ever. His comment, "Is salty!"

And almost too quietly, a nice guy came by and installed the new water heater (old one was ancient and leaked). I never got his story, sadly.

So, the progress: Wow! Did I mention that I love demolition? They took out all the old cabinets, re-opened the door from the kitchen to the dining room, and started removing the weird wall that cut the "library" in half. We call this wall the "Plate Wall" because some previous owner has installed 5 ceramic plates into the tiles. Check out the progress! Those old owners were crazy mad in love with those plates! They went to great lengths to intall them.

Start of Before/After shots on Flickr.

Holy Smoking Toes, Batman!

I'm generally compulsive about researching stuff on the internet. But I must be losing my touch.

I went this morning for an acupuncture apptment since Schnecke was still appearing to be breech. The theory goes that acupuncture treatment for breech babies is non-invasive, gentle, 'can't hurt'. Other turning options (manual version) are way more intense.

So I called Master Lee, way out in the burbs, and got an 8 am slot.

I kinda never looked up what would happen. I probably meant to, but I had certain assumptions about acupuncture. I knew it would involve lil needles. I knew there would be some incense burning (moxibustion). I missed the part where the burning herbs would be pressed to my pinky toes until it burned.

My job was to breathe (all 5 parts of Chinese breathing were covered before we began) and to call out 'hot' when it moved from warm to burning. Uhm.... there is precious little time between warm and burning, so I was saying 'hot' so often I'd never get to breathing. A few times I tried to zone out, but then it would burn and I'd have to come back to call out 'hot'.

So, did it work? I left uncertain. I felt Schnecke rummaging and knew she'd woken up for it. (Yeah, Mom's having her toes lit on fire! I should imagine she'd be awake!) But I couldn't tell where she was. After a wholly relaxing day of going to Carpet One (stairs runners!), the German Depot (Katjes!), and Home Depot (ceiling fans!), I made my way to the OB for my routine apptment. Blood pressure, fine. Weight, fine. Baby?

We popped in for a low-res sonogram and, lo and behold, head in the down position! Rejoice!!

Now, was it the burning toes? Who knows. Maybe she'd already flipped before I met with Master Lee; maybe days ago. She was being irate in the Home Depot, so maybe she flipped there when I was lifting ceiling fans into the cart. I really can't tell. Don't you think you'd know if a 5ish lb creature in your gut flipped head over heels? It makes me doubt I'd know if she flipped again. But let's just assume it's all good now.

And, yes, Master Lee, I will relax, breathe, and do a lil less. (Maybe.)

All Hail Craigslist

Things that Craig has done for me - in reverse order of impressiveness:

• Gotten rid of any number of oddball regiftings
• Found me 2 co-sleepers (one the wrong size, but that was my fault) and a baby swing
• Found me an inset medicine cabinet for FREE!
• Found me a cheap pedestal sink

• Sold my FiL's treadmill.
• Sold an old lawnmower.
• Got rid of a ton of unwanted gravel from our front yard. (literally got dozens of interested requests!)
• Sold my FiL's boats. Two of them! After normal boating channels failed.

By far the best:

• Rented out our townhouse over a holiday while we were away. As I recall to a lovely lesbian couple from NC looking to relocate to DC. I hope they liked it here.
• Found a cheap rental of a private apartment in London for a week. After we got the cheap flight on IcelandAir, we learned that hotels in London are NEVER cheap. This cool student was going on holiday to Tunisia, so we got a whole house in central London, with kitchen, laundry, and all, for about 1/2 the going rate of a cheap hotel room in the far flung burbs. Very impressive!

Craig is a good man. Just today he helped me sell $1,000 of unwanted appliances from the new house ... in just 3 hours folks! Listed it late this morning and by lunch I had a solid sale for this evening.

Sing his praises.

A Handyman Special

I only joke because no one was hurt. A townhouse completely subsided and collapsed last night.

In my new-found obsession with old house engineering, I thought I would share this:

If your house is not actually built on a foundation, meaning it's bricks on dirt, DON'T undermine the whole thing in a rainy spring and assume it'll just stay there.

BTW, this 1900 2 bedroom house was assessed at $455,K for 2007. And the one it landed on: $640,K. That's a lot of insurance settlement.

(photo courtesy of the DCFD, which has an unnervingly boss logo. Gossip on the cause thanks to InShaw.)

"Keepin' busy?"

We are so freaking productive, you'd think we'd get things done faster. Yesterday was a great example.

I got up and drove off to work, where in a half day I did a whole day's work. I then went to Home Despot and and ordered the counters and bought some of the necessary fixtures. Then I met Bill and an electrician to pace the house again. Bill and I then puttered - removing the hideous countertop in the breakfast room and moving our 'work table' to the tiled part of the house to avoid more floor damage. I also found time to call a pediatrician to make an intro apptment; follow up with two other electricians, two general contractors, and a window guy; update our xmas/birth announcement list; receive and respond to the first batch of articles for the next Sierra Club newsletter; research plaster repair; make and enjoy a lovely stirfry and salad dinner; read some chapters of my trashy sci-fi; take an hour's nap... oh! and finally repair the weedwhacker and finish weedwhacking our small (but lush) back yard.

Bill in turn metro'd to UDC after a morning of making calls. He had a staff meeting, met me for the electrician and home fun, had dinner, went to VA to pick-up an industrial strength dolly and check the boat battery (sadly croaked). He also finished his formal application to UDC; haggled about the boat (we have a buyer!!) and set up a seatrial; made the first drop on the price of our townhouse; hit up family for moving and home repair tools; and still found time to send me perfectly ridiculous links, have a relaxing dinner, and read before bed.

I would like to say that was unusual...but really, it was just a lil better than normal. We have some big looming deadlines (like the due date) that are inspiring us to hustle, but even on 'normal' days in 'normal' weeks in 'normal' years... yeah, we don't really feel like we have those. Never have, either of us, before or after we got married. We both have trouble answering the basic Monday morning question, "so what'd you do this weekend?" Look above folks: THAT WAS ONE DAY! And a workday, no less. Bill's co-workers like to ask, "Keepin' busy?" and he sometimes feels like answering, "In ways you can't comprehend."

When Schnecke arrives, either we will find our lives to be completely and utterly devastated by the chaos that a newborn brings to our lives...or we will find ourselves well-equipped because we already have the skills to juggle a million things...or, in a twist of dark irony, we'll end up with a baby that requires Absolute Order and Perfect Scheduling and that will be totally foreign to us.