Eating, or rather, Not eating

Do you remember when I used to brag about how great an eater Max was? How proud I was that what ever I put in front of him, he would eat with gusto. It could be spicy, lumpy, smooth, cold or hot. He would eat it up and barely leave a scrap or crumb. Meal time at our house has now turned into this:


He took his masked potatoes off his plate and onto the his tray to better smear them around and pick out all the peas. This child has now become a very difficult eater. He is currently living on peas and porogies. Supposedly he is eating well at Delia's.

Am I worried? No. Have you seem him? It's not like he is starving! But it is getting a little annoying all the food I am wasting. I imagine this too will come to pass. I just have to ride the wave and be happy that he seems to be able to eat his weight in fruit and yogurt. Somehow I've got to figure out how to get some protein into the child.

Making Daddy Proud

I think this is the only reason Marty wanted to have kids.

Basement Renos - Day 5

No picture today, they just didn't turn out. I know, I know, you must all be so disappointed!

We got the walls primed. We are both still coming down from the high. We had to use some pretty nasty stuff to cover up the dark wood paneling. The house still smells bad and I can't imagine it will get much better since it's so damp. Ugh. But it's done. Now we wait for the guy to call us for the drywall mudding quote. We have NO IDEA how much that will be. How do you find out the going rate of a contractor?

The other part of our day was spent at IKEA. I used to really like IKEA. It's polish has definitely worn off. I do believe however, that it is because of the one store in Ottawa. They only carry about 75% of the items found in the catalogue or online (something I was always suspicious of and which was confirmed for me today by an employee) and the staff leave much to be desired. We went looking for the middle of the line flooring that we saw online. It turns out that the Ottawa store only carried the high end and the low end. It was over a $300 difference! Yep, we went cheep. Ah to be able to renovate with a real budget instead of pennies found behind the bookshelf! Maybe one day...

But back to reality. Marty and his friend (Marty, or as I call him, Dolan) are making a go at putting in the floor on Sunday. So, anyone out there up for a visit? I can't imagine I want to be here with Max when the swearing starts and little bits of fake wood start flying across the room.

Basement Renos - Day 4

Carpet up. Body aching. Tomorrow: priming the walls and buying the floor. So tired. Going to bed.

Basement Renos - Day 3

No photos of the basement today. You can't really see the progress. We finished the drywall and got ready for carpet ripping. This included taking up metal strips that were randomly located through the carpet covering up frayed seems, lifting up the trim and sort of cleaning up after the drywalling.

Then we went carpet shopping. OMG carpet is expensive! After picking my jaw up off the floor, we decided IKEA laminate floor is the way to go. It's a quarter of the price of the cheapest carpet. So we can buy a nice throw rug to go on top. I know it's not the best quality flooring out there, but we don't plan to be in this house for ever and it will look good when we sell.

Here is Max helping out. We hope to start priming the walls tomorrow after the carpet ripping. Oh, does anyone know a good drywall mudder? There is no way we are going to get that done ourselves in this century. Man, there are a lot of screws!

Basement Renos - Day 2

We have a ceiling!! Well almost. Ron and Meredith came over tonight and dry walled. We are almost done, but we all hit a wall and figured it would be best to leave it instead of waiting until someone sliced a finger open or drilled their hand to the ceiling. But you can see a remarkable difference with just a white ceiling!


That was all done tonight. During the day, Marty cleaned out the basement, I went to IKEA for some curtains and came out with instant art, bibs, dishes for Max, ... no curtains. It always happens. You go in for a $20 purchase, and you leave without that thing you intended and your bank account $100 lighter. We also went back and forth to Home Depot several times, and which will happen several more times for the next few days.

Tomorrow, ripping up carpet and maybe even some painting!

Day 1 - Basement Reno

Today is the first official day of our basement renos. We have been toiling with the idea for a while now, and I decided that I would take the week off (from a very crazy time at work at the moment) and plug away at the basement with Marty. Supply teaching calls won't come for another couple of weeks, so we needed to act now.

This is where we are now.



As you can see by the wood paneling and orange carpet, the last time the basement was renovated was probably around 1972. Prior to us ripping out the ceiling tiles, the basement housed and enormous amount of crap (which is now stuffed into the furnace room) and Marty's computer. Basically it was a hovel for Marty to disappear into.

With Max, we have accumulated more stuff, and the 12' x 12' living room is starting to feel a little crowded. Considering it's basically the only place that Max has lived in the past 16 months, I'm surprised he's a well adjusted as he is. Our big hope is to have a play room type of space in the basement, along with some storage and Marty's computer desk. I had huge dreams of getting it all done this week (installing pot lights, dry walling the ceiling, painting, putting down new carpet, putting up shelving and buying a new couch), but I have had the harsh slap of reality hit me pretty hard. Now I will be happy if we get the ceiling done.

So, what did we accomplish on Day 1 - Basement Reno? We came across some potential electrical problems, so didn't get anything done over the weekend. But with the wonderful help of Meredith's dad, Jim, we were given the green light and could proceed with the lighting installation. So that's what Marty accomplished today. What did I do you ask? I did a little bit of work in the yard, and then went to the spa. Yep, Marty slogged at home and I sat in the sauna and whirl pools of the Nordic Spa in Chelsey. If you live within an hours drive of Ottawa and haven't done this, Go. Do. This. It's the best stress reliever that I have ever come across.

So what's in store for Day 2 - Basement Reno? I think some carpet riping and dry wall buying. Stay tuned.