I had a long list of stuff I wanted to get done written up on Friday evening. Somehow, I was able to cross a lot of stuff off that list, accomplish a bunch of other stuff, but I’m laying here feeling like I didn’t make any progress.
The floor in the den got hand-sanded one last time to remove any of the residual paint spatter, and this afternoon got a final coat of polyurethane down on the whole thing. We tried a light blue on the ceiling but decided against it after noticing that it lowered the top of the room, so I touched up a bunch of areas and knocked out the final punchlist.
Beyond that, the normal household stuff got accomplished—lawn mowed, weeds edged, floors vacuumed, etc. I tried to make some headway in cleaning out the basement and garage, but the dust kicked up as I moved around the basement aggravated my already sore throat to the point where I had to stop. Back inside, I cleaned up the front porch, and dragged a refrigerator box inside to carve out a castle for Finn.
The Fourth of July is bearing down on us quickly, and I still feel like there’s a ton of stuff left to do.
As seen on the Facebooks, I busted out the Through the Viewfinder rig this morning. Finn wouldn’t hold still long enough for me to get a clear image, though…
This shot was taken a year and two days ago. It’s amazing how much Finn has grown since then. I can’t put her in a backpack anymore, and she’s getting heavy to ride on my shoulders for more than a half an hour.
Today she’s home sick with a fever, nestled on the couch with Mama, after a restless night of sleep and an early wake-up for Daddy. She’s getting more and more opinionated and strong-willed every day, which makes me proud and afraid at the same time; it’s definitely a challenge to get her to do things these days when just six months ago she was much more agreeable.
Padding quietly downstairs this morning at 6, I laid her on the couch, tucked her sweaty head under my chin, and dozed quietly with her for an hour. It reminded me of her first months, when I’d swaddle her up like a mummy and lay next to her on the couch, watching her sleep, in awe of her being.
On Saturday morning, Mr. Scout and I ventured down to beautiful Jessup to buy some metal. We’re going to make bumpers for our Scouts, and we needed raw materials to get started. Based on measurements taken from a plan I built in Illustrator, some nice bluehaired ladies in a dark bar-enclosed shed sold us lengths of box steel and plate, and we loaded up the truck with our booty. This place was a picture straight out of 1960, from ancient brick and wood paneling to the yellowing xeroxed cartoons taped to the walls. There were no computers in sight; our order was transcribed into a three-ring notebook and estimated with a calculator. Mr. Scout told me he’d priced out the materials online and what we got was dirt-cheap, which makes me feel good. Now to find the time to get over to Chestertown to start building it all.
Later that day, I bought some underlayment for the bathroom and began the tiling process. Sadly, this meant the sink and toilet had to be removed, at a crucial time for our household: Finn is on a potty-training program which means we have to get her upstairs every 45 minutes or so before she leaves a puddle somewhere on the floor. She’s doing really well, though; there were only a few accidents and she woke from both weekend naps completely dry. She’s also sleeping in her big-girl bed, which is a huge step for all of us. Saturday and Sunday morning she peeked in our room before dawn and woke me quietly, and both times she was dry—this after about 8 hours of sleep. Then I’d hoist her into our bed and she’d thrash around between us until I took her downstairs; clearly I need to get to sleep much earlier if this is how the pattern is going to change.
The underlayment went down quickly and with minimal fuss.
Waiting for the adhesive to cure, I finished off the kickplate, top trim, and other bits of carpentry and slapped a first coat of gloss white on as much as I could see clearly at 11:30PM. Mr. Scout brought a 1/4″ router bit with him, and we quickly milled a piece of wood for the space between the two right-hand windows. He also pointed out that I’d been using the wrong gauge nails in my pneumatic gun, which is information I could really have used about two months ago. (Thanks, Mr. Scout!)
Sunday morning Finn and I let Mama sleep in as long as she wanted, and we all spent the morning together before I got started tiling. It went in pretty easily. Mama suggested laying it with the points facing inward, so the hexagon shape stands out in the pattern, and I think it was the right move. We have a bit more trim work to do, and I need to cut about twenty pieces in half for the threshold, but we’re almost ready for grout.
(Conversation after breakfast this morning):
Finn: Can I have dessert?
Mama: You had dessert. You had fruit.
Finn: No, that’s healthy.