Rick & Lexia: August 2009

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Jeff n' Melanie's Party Part 2

I know, I know. Tomorrow turned into like two weeks. Just blame it all on school. And all the adventures we’ve been having, which is part of the story I’m going to tell. I just can’t decide how to organize it.

Let’s start with where we left off. The Casa Grande party. Jeff and Melanie came in Thursday evening. Lyn and Stacie and their kids arrived Friday. Riley got to raise the basketball standards.

Matt and Dana drove down from Provo Friday evening. (all by themselves!) We decorated Friday evening and Saturday morning. Melanie’s parents, Larry & Janie Bird, came to our house for lunch Saturday afternoon, when we served pit cook meat and various side dishes.

The party Saturday evening was low-key and fun. People came in a slow but steady stream all evening. Jeff said he got to visit with people he hadn’t seen in a long time. Grandad sang “Waltz Across Texas” and “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?” to the newlyweds.

He also got to dance with his newest granddaughter. It was fun and everything went well.

Everyone was gone after church on Sunday. We were glad they all got home safely. We’re really glad they took so much of the leftovers with them. I finally got the broccoli in the freezer Thursday night. We still have cheese slices and peas in the fridge.

These are the centerpieces we put on the tables. There's a small LED light and some filler stuff like Easter grass in the bowl surrounded by birds and kisses.

There are colored lights in the plants and in the swags. Dad and Jeff draped colored lights from the crown moulding on the long sides of the room. It all looked very nice when we were done. The colored lights were more summery than white lights would have been.

So we're back to having only Matt at home and school and work and the addition to the house and Portland and yearbook and . . .

Our Adventures in Plumbing

First, We have outside walls, windows and doors.

Dad and I framed around the windows and Matt finished up on the doors. We still have framing to put on the outside corners.

The plumbers came Monday, Aug 17. They did preliminary work which involved moving all my stuff out of the master closet (attic access) and clearing everything out of the utility area (except the appliances) so they could access those pipes. Tuesday, they put in the lines in the addition.

Kitchen sink

Wash room

Part of this job involved putting in new plastic lines for whole house so we aren’t using galvanized pipe anymore. We put in the piping in the new kitchen and the plumber was to tie it into the new stuff. He was also to repipe the washer/dryer area and put in a new front faucet outside. Part of the question was whether we had put in plastic when we redid the master bath and redid the bath in the kid’s bathroom. We were sure we did, but the plumber couldn’t find the pipes in the attic, So Wednesday, they began to look for the bathroom pipes in earnest. This involved cutting holes in the walls to determine what kind of piping we had. I came home from school to find five holes in various walls.

Front faucet - living room

Utility room

Kid's bathroom plus 2 in the master bath shelves.

We will put the pieces back in the walls and tape and texture and repaint. Friday, the plumber was back to install new bath exhaust fans in both bathrooms. The final result? We now have no galvanized pipe in the water system. The fridge ice machine is chuckling away at keeping the bin full and we have decent water pressure again. The electrician comes Monday or Tuesday.

It Rained! In the House!!!!

You’re never sure how good the new roofing job is until it rains. We were glad there was no rain while the roof was open to the sky. We heaved a big sigh of relief once the shingles were on and tied into the old roof. Then it rained Thursday evening. We had drips in the master bedroom along the first beam. It wasn’t too bad. The roofers came out and did some stuff. We were set. Saturday morning at 4 am, we woke to rain and drips in our bedroom. This time it was on the second beam and was pretty steady. We had to move the bed and set out a line of buckets to catch drips and towels to catch splashes.

We also discovered a very large damp spot, with some drips in girl’s room. We moved most of the books off the top self and all the boxes and other stuff that were on the floor under the spot out of the bedroom.

The roofers came Saturday morning and worked on the roof. We hope it’s fixed. We worked on restoring order to some of the chaos. My clothes are now back in the closet. We sorted through three boxes of stuff from the utility room and some of that is back on the shelves. Some of the plumbing patches are back in place, but not taped yet.

I am realizing that in addition to the addition, we need to paint the rest of the house as well. No telling when that will get done.

Random stuff:

Flashlights found on the shelves of the utility area. Don’t know how many of them actually work.

The Great box migration

The adventure continues!!!!!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

What a Party!!!!

Jeff and Melanie are married! It was a beautiful wedding. The two receptions are over. They were fun. We enjoyed meeting Melanie's family and having everyone together for an all too brief time. All together now *whew*!!!!! This is a collection of photos from the different events. Little commentary, lots of memories. We had fun. Note: this could also be called "Grandad and the little ones" or "A good party is never wasted".