Still straining toward what is ahead...

This is supposed to by my way-overdue blog post about how to making hosting a holiday gathering a cinch.  Or I should be telling you all about the great time I had at Christmas, or about how excited I am to be starting nursing school in January.  And all of those things would be good and true.  But if we're honest, that's not what I spend the majority of my time thinking about lately.

This is.

Big Newses, etc.

I'm breathing a big sigh, and starting to relax.  There are lots of things to tell you.  As usual, a list is the way to go.  For your convenience, the big newses are in bold, other newses aren't. 

Semester = Over

I took my last exams today.  My assignments are turned in and graded, the studying is done for a few weeks, and I am exhausted. What are you going to do now, Steph? Probably get sick, read ALL the books, sleep, bake Christmas cookies, etc.

My Thanksgiving dream came true, and it was a smashing success. At least in my book.  Tim's parent's and sister came, I cooked a turkey dinner, the smoke alarm only went off once, everything was delicious, and it was relaxing and not stressful.  I'm still have leftovers in my fridge.  I should probably throw those out, huh? I took pictures and I was going to share recipes but... those pictures are currently in Anchorage.  So, when they come back, I will get busy with that. Also coming up, advice for a successful holiday dinner!  Keep it simple, work ahead, etc.

Emily has started her new job.  She hasn't worked with BTTJ one single day, since he's been in Alaska. How's it going for her?  She's kicking butt, taking names, etc.

Alfonso won Dancing with the Stars.  And I loved it.  And Sadie made it to finals and was fantastic.  And Mark was a crying mess.  And next season is the 10th anniversary, so it could be pretty major.  Thankfully, I have Downton Abbey coming up in a few weeks to hold me over.  I also realized I am free next spring (2016) to do the show, so I should probably get on that.  Step 1: become famous, etc.

Progress on the basement in the last month: zero.  We still have no stairs.  If you have questions or concerns about this, please address them to BTTJ.  I'll be busy coloring in my blanket fort.

I survived working Black Friday, though to be fair, I got the easy shift--- the one where there were not customers.  Pretty much all I did was clean. It was great.  When I went back on Saturday, everything was a disaster again.

Jynx got a haircut, because she majorly needed one.  She looks cute, but I definitely caught her shivering today-- inside the house. Maybe we should turn up the thermostat?

(Cue the obigatory dog pictures!)

Here she is before (the fluff-bucket at the top)

Christmas Spirit Day List

Friends!

Hello!

I know it's been awhile, and I apologize it's just that...life got busy, you know?  It happens to the best of us.  Life is still busy.  I should definitely be writing a paper or cleaning my house right now, but, well...(to be honest)...I've missed you! So I thought I would pop in with a little Christmas Spirit Day check-in.  As always, bullet points are the way to go when there are lots of things.

• First (and most importantly) HAPPY CHRISTMAS SPIRIT DAY!  I know that some of you may still be in the dark about what this is, and I had intended to explain it to you by now, but...(see excuses above).  I hope today is filled with Christmas music, warm drinks, joy, and maybe a little bit of snow.

Wordless Wednesday: What London is Like

Wordless Wednesday: What is London Like?

 

Happy Thursday!

As you may (or may not) know, today is Christmas Spirit Day!   If you don't know what that is, that's ok... I'll explain another day.  In the mean time, please humbly accept my tidings of comfort and joy.

Bullet points seem to be the only way to get a lot of unrelated thoughts out of my brain, so here we go!

• I'm so glad we're done working on the basement for awhile, so I don't have to write about it for awhile.  Back to sharing whatever strikes my fancy!
• Tomorrow is Friday.  This should be exciting, but I go straight from class to work until 10:15, so that's kind of a bummer...
• I saw this article on the Facebook and I really really liked it.  If you want to know what it's like to be The Sort of Pretty Girl, Ophelia explains it really well.
• Ever since I read this post by Joy the Baker, I have been craving a really big pastry. Really Steph?  Out of that whole post, the huge pastry is what sticks with you? Well... yeah.  Also, I want to bake these someday soon.
• You've heard of Apparently Kid, right? Kid Snippets did a tribute, and it's fantastic.  Whenever you need to laugh and lighten up, Kid Snippets are the way to go.

•  I was reading in my sociology book about a concept called status inconsistency (or discrepancy).  This is where people have a mismatch among their statuses, like a 14 year old college student.  I read this and I thought to myself, "this is my life."  I'm not really a "normal" college student, but college is my life.  I'm kind of an adult but not really. It's hard to figure out where to fit it.  Then my friends, Tina and Kari, shared this with me and it was such an encouragement.  Thanks, ladies!  I'm realizing that by not fitting in, I can connect better with others who don't fit in. 

• Another term from sociology is resocialization, which means learning new norms, behaviors, etc. to adapt to a new situation in life.  I have done this several times this year: adapting to unemployment, adapting to life on the other side of the pond, adapting to being back home, going to school, and a new job.  For a girl who's not crazy about change, it's been rough.  But I think I've turned a corner and I'm finally starting to feel settled.
• I had a great time celebrating this girl's birthday with her and other friends.  Love you, Mindy!

• Dancing With the Stars, Season 19 is in full swing! I'm loving it, and having a hard time picking a favorite.  I would list
  about 8 couples as my favorites, so we'll need to wait a few week and see how things develop before I weigh in.
• I've been missing England a lot lately.  I'm not sure why, but I think of it often and at random times.  Maybe we'll be revisiting London on the blog here soon.  Maybe not... I make no guarantees.

• The dogburts are as crazy and sassy as ever.  I think they're starting to get settled into a routine a little more, for which I am grateful.

Warning: this dog may contain gluten

• 
  Tim was in Alaska earlier this week.  The people he was working with said Alaska has about 2 weeks of fall, and he was there right in the middle of it.  His pictures are fantastic!

I think that's all for now. What have you been up to?

The Basement: Calling in the Professionals

Hi All.  I know you've been on the edge of your seats for the last week, and I apologize.  My excuses are the usual: life, school, work, blah blah blah, but this week I'm throwing in my first round of tests (3 in one week) and a dogburt with an ear infection (don't worry, she's feeling much better now).

We last left off with our basement looking like this.

Actually, that's I lie.  I just realized I never posted that here... Tim put it on Facebook.  This is Tim scooping the last scoop of dirt from our floor in order to level it.  I would like to point out the lack of stairs (don't worry, I let down a ladder for him, he's not cemented down there).  Also worth noting, I think this picture was taking at about 11 on Monday night.  Great way to start the week.

Midwest Basement Systems arrived Tuesday morning to find our basement looking like this.

When they left Tuesday evening, things looked like this:

What they had done was put a trench (kind of looks like a tray or gutter) all along the exterior walls.  They also applied a moisture-proof cover to the walls that ties into the trenching to help with drainage.  The trenching all leads to a sump pump, which will pump water out as needed.

The cement guys weren't available until Thursday (they were contracted by Midwest Basement... we didn't have to line them up ourselves).  It was kind of fun to watch them get the cement into the basement.  

They brought this truck that pumps the cement through a long hose.  As you can see, the hose had to go all the way over our tree-- it was higher than our house!

When they finished, things were looking MUCH better.

Someone asked if we put our hand prints in the concrete.  No, we didn't.  We didn't even thing about it, actually.  I would have hated to mess up that nice shiny surface anyway.

On Friday Midwest basement came back and installed the sump pump and finished things up.  

Right now we still don't have stairs, and have no motivation to build them either.  Now that we're over this hurdle, we'll take our time starting to finish the basement.

The Basement Weeks 6&7: Ugggggh

As I write this I am sitting with a heating pad on my back and wonder if I will ever move again.  As that shirt on the Pinterest said, "My everything hurts."  We skipped our church's annual retreat this weekend to get the basement ready which was a major bummer at first, but... it turned out all right.  Tim and I spent a lot more time together than we would have otherwise, and (here is God at work) we got along all weekend!

I didn't update you last week because, well... life.  You know, classes, work, both of us came down with nasty colds, we had out of town company (which was FANTASTIC-- thanks for coming, guys!) Tim got sent on a business trip at the last minute...so we are down to crunch time.  And we got SO MUCH DONE this weekend.  In fact, here is a summary of what has happened since the last check-in (all of this did not necessarily happen this weekend):

Tim leveled the landing.  It was pretty bad.

See the bubble all the way over there on the left?

 The old cast-iron drain-pipe has been replaced with PVC.

This is a before picture

Jynx dug the trenches for the plumbing.

Tico did the plumbing.

I filled the trenches back in.

Tim is leveling the floor.

I have a couple of loads of rubble to take to the dump between classes tomorrow, and we need to finish leveling the floor (we've done the worst of it).

When I get home from work tomorrow night, we're going to take out the old stairs and set up a ladder for the construction guys to use.  And we will be done... for now.

In just a few days we will have a waterproofed basement with a new slab!  I can hardly believe it...

The Basement: Week 5- The Plan

Holy moly! Suddenly it's 8 pm on Tuesday night and I owe you all a basement update!  So what do I do when I get on the computer to write this post? Get caught in the swirling vortex of Facebook.

Sheesh, Taylor.  Get it together.

I know, I know.

You will all be happy to know that you won't be seeing picture after picture of our torn up, damp, dirty basement tonight.  The reason is simple: things look pretty much the same.  Do not, however, think that this means no progress!  Last week involved a lot of consulting and researching and head scratching and clicking and squinting and grunting and moaning.  And the result?

Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to present The Plan!

Big Time Timmy Jim put it together (all of that clicking and grunting and head-scratching was him).  Didn't he do a fantastic job?  His talents know no bounds, am I right?

Let's do a tour of this basement, shall we?  Starting in the top left and going clockwise we have the stairs.  These are right off of our side door and currently have a treacherously small landing.  Trying to get around the door too get out the door, especially when you're carrying something big and heavy is like taking your life in your hands on a daily basis.  So we plan to extend the landing for a little more room, which will push the steps out into the basement further.  To ensure proper headspace, we will end up taking out the toilet closet that is off of our breakfast nook.

To the right of the stairs is the new bathroom.  We plan to have a full bath with a shower (but not a bathtub).  In the upper right-hand corner of the bathroom you see a closet.  A rack will go into this closet to house our server and other computery-networky things.  This closet will also provide access to the breaker panel.  Everybody has a rack in their basement bathroom, right?  We're finally going to be normal :)

To the right of the bathroom, you see the kitchenette in the home theater room.  We plan to have a fridge and a microwave and a sink.  We also have plans for a bar-height table where people can sit and eat at a table and still have a good view of whatever is on the screen. This table will be right along the back of a couch on a platform, aka stadium seating.  In front of that and a little lower will be the front row couch (or possible sectional) placed at ideal viewing distance from the screen.  Tim's a professional, so he knows all about optimal viewing angles, etc.  

The room to the left of this will be a bedroom for guests, although Tim and I might move down there in the summer to keep cool. The space the stairs open into (between the bedroom and bathroom) will be our new laundry area, complete with a utility sink that we can fit a dog in!  Dog baths just got so much easier.


Since we're talking about the plan, I wanted to offer a brief word on why.  So often with remodels it is easy to become selfish and worry about keeping up with the Jonses, and I really don't want this to be like that.  We wanted to make better use of the space we had--get rid of stuff and make room for people.  This setup will make it much easier to host people, and much more comfortable for our guests as well.  We hope this will enhance the x-box party nights Tim has with the high school guys from church, and hopefully we can use it to minister to and encourage more people.

Since we don't have kids, I sometimes feel left out when people share Psalm 127:3-5 and talk about how "children are a blessing."  I know that it is true, but I also realize that not having children is a blessing as well.  While we are in this stage of life, we not only want to enjoy it as much as possible, but use our situation for God's glory. We have both felt that God is calling us to "enlarge the place of our tent" (Psalm 54:2) to make room for more people in it, and this basement project is a big part of that.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: our friends have been such a blessing through this process!  I have never had a home project feel so... annointed.  It's hard to explain, but God really is just making it happen, and it is so cool to see!  I am glad He choses to let us participate in His work.

So where do we go from here?  Tim has taken this week off work to get ready for Midwest Basement to come, and things are looking good. Last week I listed what we needed to figure out, and here is a little update:

• How to remove the concrete under the water heater, and leave the water heater in a place where a new slab can be poured underneath.  My definition of the Simple Elegant Solution for this does not involve 2 weeks of cold showers, but we'll see if we can find that solution. Midwest Basement came for a site visit yesterday and said we can just leave the concrete there.  Yay!
• How to remove the concrete under the stairs while still supporting the stairs because, well... we kind of need them. Midwest basement said we DON'T need them... we can take them out and just leave a ladder to the basement for them.  This is really good news as well!
• How to cut out the old cast-iron drain pipe so we can hook in new plumbing.
• Where our new plumbing needs to go (Simple and Elegant is OBVIOUSLY the desired solution on this) As you can see from the plan above, we are a lot closer.  Now we just need to start putting pipes down...
• How to keep from losing our minds.  This is still a real concern.

Thanks for hangin' in there with us and for checking in.  Your pageviews are so encouraging!