We interrupt this construction project for another construction project

I know that I haven't posted much lately, but, in all honesty, there's not a whole lot that's changed.  The rec room is close to being finished.  Close enough, in fact, that I ordered my TV today and am going to the store tomorrow to pick up the last big item...an electric fireplace.  There are only a few things to do yet in there, finish the few ceiling tiles, add the track lighting in what will eventually be the bar area, move the filing cabinet into the other room and add shelving to my closet.  The bathroom, however, still has a ways to go, the tile floor is complete, but the ceiling needs to be installed (including the gridwork), as does the sink, toilet, and exhaust fan.

After such a great start, I had high hopes for having everything done by early October.  Now, I'm hoping that everything's done by the middle of November.  So, what's the big holdup....another construction project.  You see, our church voted to undertake a major remodel project this year on the 45+ year old building.  Some of it was necessary, our roof was leaking; some of it was cosmetic.  And, of course, one of the members of the building committee was my brother.  While he didn't head the building committee, he wound up being the one to go up to church every night to make sure the doors were locked (the construction crew was pretty forgetful), hear the concerns/complaints from congregation members, and be the all around Johnny on the Spot, so he didn't have a whole lot of time left for his big sister's little basement project.

That still left Dad to keep plugging along until he too got sucked into the church project.  Along with the remodeling in the existing church, as a part of the construction project, a storage shed was to be built.  To save a little bit of money, rather than have the construction company build the shed, members of the congregation were asked to volunteer.  Two pretty awesome men (and, by default because he was the son of one of the volunteers, one awesome former Sunday Schooler of mine) stepped forward.  When it became apparent that nobody else was going to help, my dad offered.  Unfortunately, that meant my project came to a SCREECHING halt (although I understand I am in good company, as one of the other builders has a list of things he wanted to accomplish this summer at home).  The build seemed to take forever because, while they weren't building the shed, the construction company was responsible for organizing when the concrete was laid, as well as when materials would arrive.  On several occasions, there were interruptions because the materials weren't there at all, or if they were, there weren't enough.  My personal favorite was when the Project Manager sent out a nasty email reminder because someone (not any of the volunteer builders) promised during a construction meeting that a certain portion of the shed would be finished by Monday so that the concrete could be poured.  Our mighty construction crew worked through the weekend downpours to get the work done (mind you, they couldn't have started any earlier because this Project Manager didn't order the materials in time), how nobody came down with pneumonia is still beyond me.  And, guess what?  The concrete wasn't poured on Monday...or Tuesday....or, well, you get my drift.

This wouldn't have been bad, with the exception of a couple of things.  When this project started, I approached the head of the building committee and our minister and asked them if they were going to include language in the contract that encouraged the builder to complete the project on time and on budget.  Specifically, I suggested we include penalties for every day the project ran over.  I was told that that was rediculous, and that I (actual words) "had absolutely NOTHING to worry about."  Even after the project started and things were progressing extremely slowly, the response every time I asked if we were going to be on time was "There's nothing to worry about, (insert The worship area will be done for J&A's wedding in August; the classrooms will be ready in plenty of time for Sunday School and, my favorite, EVERYTHING will be done well before October).  HA!!! As you may have guessed, I've had several times where I could have said "I told you so." 

And, through it all, the two people who've interacted with the project manager have sung her praises.  Let me tell you, this chick must be HOT, because that's the only reason I can see for these guys praising her up and down every chance they get.  I know at least one P/P/D I work with reads my blog, and that she would CRINGE at the emails that come from the project manager to members of the building committe, as well as the volunteers for the shed. No client should be spoken to in that manner, and that's what we are, her client (perhaps someone should remind her of that).  Right now, with the deadlines her folks have missed the mark on, she should be treading very lightly.  When I equate it to my job, it would be like me not only missing the deadline of a project, but by first having the software up and running on September 10, when the client needs to use it to complete a tax return by September 15.  Not exactly a stellar performance if you ask me.

So now, the shed is finally finished, and Dad is getting back to work on my basement.  Hopefully, it will be done by the end of the month.  If it isn't, perhaps I should ask a certain project manager to step in.  On second thought, probably not, otherwise I'd be lucky to have the basement done by March.

Warning Signs

Warning signs are a part of our every day life:  Deer Crossings on the Highway, Wet Floor in a public restroom, Do Not Open While in Midair on the airplane (okay, okay, maybe not EVERYONE would say that's a part of every day life).  No matter where you are, there's bound to be a warning on something to remind you what to do or not to do (just in case you ever wanted to use your hairdryer while in the bathtub).  I'll bet that most of you, like me, have the ability to tune out at least some of these because of repetition.  And, if its that deer crossing sign that you drive past every day, only to see a deer lying dead on the side of the road 3 miles AFTER the sign, ignoring the sign isn't the end of the world.

How about those less obvious warning signs?  The ones that aren't bright yellow with an exclamation point through them.  You know what I'm talking about, they're those little subtle changes it's easy to overlook, like when the gas gauge drops below 1/4 of a tank and you decide to drive past the gas station because it's raining, or your significant other tells you (s)he's "fine" and you know it's not but decide to accept "fine" as an answer.  Eventually, if you ignore the signs long enough, something bad is bound to happen.  Most often, the "warnings" that we choose to ignore are those that our body is sending us (like a sniffle) until they become bigger issues (like a nasty cold or, worse yet, pneumonia).

That's what's happened to me lately.  I've been under a lot of stress from a lot of different forces, and my body's tried to tell me to slow down, but like most of us I've ignored it.  I mean, come on, in this day and age, who am I kidding, stress is a part of everyone's life, and we all just deal with it.

Unfortunately for me, when I'm stressed, my body likes to attack me, literally...

In high school when things got stressful, I noticed that I had a very flaky scalp, which I attributed to dandruff and bought some Selson Blue and "sucked it up."  When the flakes started creeping out to my face, I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with seborrheic dermatitis.  It's similar to dandruff and is a way that one's body can react to being stressed over a period of time.  So, I found some outlets to help me "de-stress," used some prescription shampoo to get things under control, and things improved.

I actually did pretty well controlling my stress the first two years of college, but Junior Year it hit me.  There was boy trouble, the classes were HARD, and I felt I was being pulled in many directions.  When I got home from choir tour that year my mom walked past the chair I was sitting in and did a double-take.  I had BALD SPOTS - 3 of them.  Two were the size of a quarter, and the third the size of a half dollar, running down the center of the back of my scalp.  (Kudos to my roomies then boyfriend now husband G, who, upon our return to college, said to me "I noticed them when I was sitting behind you in the van, but I thought it was because you were getting older, I mean, look at my receding hairline").  The diagnosis - alopecia areata, a condition where, because of stress, you lose your hair.  Essentially, my white blood cells started attacking my hair folicles.  Here's the scary part, the folicle is the area that contains the pigment...and if left go too long, the pigment will be gone and any hair that grows back will be WHITE - can you imagine white streaks in my dark hair?  Fortunately, after a few cortizone shots, the hair started to grow back.  Once again, I vowed that I'd find ways to keep my stress level under control, and went on my way.

In the 15 years since I've graduated, I've had recurrences of both the dermatitis and the alopecia.  But, I've been pretty good about paying attention to the warning signs and have noticed my hair falling out, or the flakes creeping past the hairline, before they've gotten really bad.  Yes, I've had a few more cortizone shots, and have an alignment of flake-fighting shampoos in my shower, but in all things have been okay.

Back in early August, I noticed a discoloration on the bridge of my nose.  I wasn't too alarmed (well, except for when one of my co-workers jokingly told me it was an age spot), so when the dermatologist couldn't see me for 6 weeks, it didn't bother me.  In late August I noticed two more spots on my forehead, so a friend of mine suggested I change my skincare routine, just in case it was a reaction to what I was using.  I did, and instead of it going away, I noticed another spot on my cheek, so I was glad to finally see the doctor on Monday morning.

When my doctor walked in the room the first thing that she asked me (actually, I guess it was the second thing, the first was to ask how my cousin, who she knows from med school, was) was if I had had a lot of sun exposure this year.  Um, hello???? I'm an accountant, we don't have time for such frivolous things like going outside in the sun.  Just kidding, kind of, but no, I hadn't had excessive amounts of sun.  And, when I am outside for a period of time, I am really good about wearing sunscreen and a hat.

Once she ruled out the sun, the next thing she asked me was if I had a lot of headaches?  Anyone who's worked with me knows I carry around the super sized bottle of Excedrine Migraine, so the answer to that was a YES.  Follow up questions:  Are they like migraines?  Have they become more frequent?  Yes to both.  How about my hair, am I losing it?  Not in patches.  Is it getting thinner? Yes.  How long has the dermatitis been creeping onto your face and in your eyebrows?  Quite a while, likely for about a year.  Within 5 minutes of walking in the door, my doctor had diagnosed me with a condition called Melasma.  Ironically, it's nickname is the "Pregnancy Mask" because it's seen most in pregmant women, because it's related to hormone changes.  Unless there's a second coming of the Messiah, that is CLEARLY not the reason I'm getting these spots. 

Because of my history, I had some bloodwork done yesterday to see if my Pituitary or Thyroid gland is out of whack, as that would be a reason for both the Melasma and the Alopecia.  In case anyone's wondering, yes, stress can impact either of those glands.  So now, it's wait for the results of that to see if I need to get that fixed.

In the meantime, I have two prescription creams (one for the flakes and the other for the spots) that I use every night.  It's also become quite clear that I need to find ways to destress.

There are some things that I can't change, such as the medical problems of my family and some good friends.  Those things I must leave in the hands of a higher power, and pray that he helps me to know what I can do to help these people, as well as to give them (and me) the strength to make it through the hand that's been dealt.  As for work, that's one of those things where the stress level comes and goes with deadlines, just like it does for everyone else.  Once I make it through this next deadline, things will be much calmer.  Honestly, while it does get stressful at times, I actually like my job, which not everyone can say.  Knowing there's an end in sight helps, along with making sure I take a little time each night to do something just for me, either to blog, read, or meditate.  There are a few other stressors, not related to family, work, or friends, that I'm not going to go into here, other than to say that some people who discount me because I have opinions that they don't like, but at the same time expect me to help make them look good to others and also to help them achieve what they want financially.  Perhaps it's time to purge these people from my life and go somewhere where I'm respected and appreciated.

Sooooo Close

The project is getting much closer to being finished.  The team has been a little sidetracked as of late because Dad and John have been "redeployed" to different projects.  You see, our church project is still ongoing (must...resist...next...comment, let's just say it rhymes with "Hi old shoe foe"), and Dad's been helping to build a storage shed while John's been dividing his time between work, church counsel, many aspects of the church building project, Crimestoppers, friends' weddings and attending a few Brewers Games because he wanted to see them clinch the Central Division (which, with the help of MY Cubbies, he did get to see on Friday night).  My schedule wasn't exactly conducive to helping as of late either, since we were approaching one of the biggest tax deadlines of the year (9/15 is the deadline for extended corporate tax returns). 

That said, things have kept on moving, just slowly.  The ceiling grid is in, along with most of the panels, and the rest of the panels should be in by the end of the week.  The can lights and ceiling fan are also in place.

 

With any luck, the carpeting will be installed on Thursday and when I get home Thursday night or Friday evening, I'll be able to move the furniture into place.  The couch and recliner were delivered two weeks ago (usually, it would be exciting to get furniture 2-3 weeks early, but I really would have been okay waiting).  Since then, it has been patiently waiting under sheets as the construction goes on around it. 

Since the furniture is here anyway, and the ceiling is now almost complete, Mom and I took some time this weekend to assemble the shelving unit that I got for my birthday back in March.  I think we did a pretty good job, and we did it without injury or curse word.  Woot! 

As for the bathroom, there was some progress there as well.  I was in Chicago for work last week, and when I came home Thursday night, I had a surprise waiting for me.  John had finished tiling (including grouting) the bathroom floor.  I know it wasn't an easy job, because the floor in the basement is not even, and I think he did a terriffic job.  In a typical year, I help John with his taxes in return for him being my handyman.  This year he went above and beyond the call of duty, so I need to get him something cool.  How much do you want to bet he'll want me to get him something Brewers oriented, just because he knows it'll KILL me to buy it. 

Once the ceiling is done in the Rec Room, we'll move on to the bathroom ceiling.  Oh, and if any of the P/P/D's I work for are reading this blog, I think it would be a GREAT idea for me to be on the road when this happens early next week, it's a much smaller area than the rec room, requiring a lot more cutting (and probably related cussing).  It may prevent WWIII from breaking out, just saying...

Cuddles is about ready for the project to end.  He doesn't like the constant visitors, and all of this new stuff is coming with new rules.  You may have noticed the white box-like thing on the left corner of the couch.  Yeah, that's a motion alarm that emits a high-pitched squeal when there's movement.  Seems a certain feline thinks that since this furniture is in the basement it's fair game for him to sleep on.  Unfortunately for him, both at my house and at my parents, he is not allowed on any furniture other than my bed and that rule extends to the Rec Room.  He behaves well upstairs, but the dark furniture shows his kitty-litter-dust paw prints and is a dead giveaway that he's been where he shouldn't be.  So from now on, the door stays shut when I'm not in the room.  Don't worry folks, he still has plenty of room to roam upstairs.

A Change in Appearance

I know I haven't updated lately, but we had some things going on at home that slightly derailed the remodel process.  I won't go into details here, but suffice it to say any future home changes (i.e. remodels and/or new purchases) will NOT be in process when my mom has her yearly doctors' check-ups.

The first change is in the bathroom, where the electrical is complete, the light is installed (although we're waiting until after the ceiling is installed to put the light covers on) and the vanity is set in place.

The Rec Room area has changed a lot since my last blog.  Four gallons of primer, three gallons of off-white, and three gallons of the faux finish later (oh, yeah, along with 4 more trips to the home improvement store to pick up "one more gallon" of paint), the painting was completed.  The laminate floor, which was given to me by my parents' most generous and awesome neighbors when it was removed from their house, has been installed in the bar area.  The doorknob on the bathroom door was replaced with a locking model, and the old doorknob has been repurposed for the closet door. 



Of course we still have a ways to go.  The tile floor needs to be laid, and the countertop, sink and toilet need installing in the bathroom (the final plumbing for that depends on me clearing a path in the disaster, oops, storage room so that the plumber can hook up the water).  We also need to get the ceiling measured so that my Dad can get that installed before the carpeting comes.  I've picked out my carpeting, and the guy will come on Wednesday to measure.  From there, it's about a week and a half for them to order it.  Then, the room will be ready for furniture deliveries.  The sofa and chair should be here in about three weeks, and I can pick up my coffee table at any time.  There will be future additions, including building a bar and decorating the walls, but by the end of September, for all intents and purposes, I should be able to call the rooms "done."

There is one individual who hasn't exactly approved of the remodel.  Cuddles isn't exactly excited about strangers or noise, so he hung out by Mom and Dad's house when the project started.  When he came home, and he suddenly couldn't travel through the walls anymore, he wasn't exactly keen on the whole thing, and he let me know it.  His curiosity does get the best of him, and he does daily inspections to see what has changed, but he doesn't seem to anxious to spend any real time downstairs.  Hopefully, once everything is in place, he'll realize it's not such a bad place to hang out.

There has been one casualty so far in the project.  The little stepladder I bought when I moved into the house to help me reach things in the upper cabinets and the shelves of my walk-in closet is now permanently covered in primer, paint and other construction materials and will be relegated for use in the garden and the garage. 



I will try to be more diligent in my updates, if my schedule permits.

And The Winning Color Is...

Green (tho I'm guessing those of you who've seen my place aren't shocked).

Mom and I painted the bathroom tonight with a shade called Mother Earth, it's hard to tell in the snapshot below, but it's kind of a mossy green color.

We did discover that we're going to need more paint for the Rec room than I originally anticipated.  Dad got about 3/4 of the primer sprayed in that room, and he'll finish that up tomorrow morning, while we make another run to the home improvement store.  I'm going to try a technique painting for the rec room called Bellagio Faux, which has an under coat and a top coat with some texture.  We only picked up a gallon of each paint, and I think we're going to need more like 3 gallons of each, oops (should have gone with the gut on that one I guess).  The undercoat is an off-white color, and the top coat is green.  I'm looking forward to when I get that done, but am guessing that's going to probably take a while.

Stay tuned for more updates :-)

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Some persons are very decisive when it comes to avoiding decisions. ~Brendan Francis

Okay, I'm going to put this out there right away. When it comes to non-work related topics, I am NOT good at making decisions, and try to defer to others when possible. I don't struggle with what direction to take a work-related project, and am confident in the decisions that I make for clients and my team, but somehow that confidence gets left at the door (or, perhaps at the keyboard) when I switch from work-mode to personal mode.

Personal decisions are something I try to avoid. When it was time to go to college, I briefly debated one other school before choosing Lakeland, but I didn't want to have to choose. So, I only filled out one college application, and only put one school down to receive my ACT scores and FAFSA information. In all fairness, my entire family is rather indecisive. Choosing where to go for lunch on a Saturday while shopping has sometimes taken my mom and I more than an hour, back and forth saying "You pick, no you pick." When my mom wants to paint, she brings home paint charts with about 25 different shades of white, and looks at them for WEEKS before selecting "just that right shade."

On occasion, I can make a quick decision on something. Ironically, the bigger and more permanent the decision, the quicker it seems to come for me. Case in point, when I was looking to buy a place 6 years ago, I went to two open houses, then saw a family friend outside of her new condo. When I walked in, I knew that's what I wanted, and in less than 72 hours I had secured financing and placed an offer on my home.

Don't misunderstand me, I do have ideas for what I want, but when faced with CHOOSING something that I hadn't already predetermined, it's ugly. When I put in the offer on my condo, I knew which of the two layouts I wanted (it was rather simple, I didn't want a shared driveway for two reasons: (1) I was afraid that my neighbors would park on my half of the driveway when I was out of town, and when I came home I couldn't get into my garage and (2) there are a handful of people I know who I could see not using common sense and parking on the neighbor's half of the driveway, thus creating the same problem for them that I wanted to avoid. I also knew that I did not want yellow siding; I wanted oak woodwork; I absolutely did NOT want that frieze carpet, as I could only imagine how that would collect cat fur; I didn't want brass doobs or cabinet pulls; and I didn't want any wall sconces. Fortunately, because I put an offer in on a completed place, the contracter made the decisions on anything I didn't have an opinion on.

Unfortunately, when I jumped into this remodel, I wasn't prepared for all of the choices I was going to have to make. I don't mean the furniture, like when I initially furnished the condo, I had an idea of what I wanted, and both times I just knew when I'd found the right pieces. In the beginning, some things made my decisions easier. Picking a sink was easy - I wanted to stick with the same manufacturer that I had for my upstairs plumbing, and if I didn't want to special order the home improvement store only had two styles - oval and rectangular. Picking a cabinet was pretty easy, since I knew I wanted something to compliment what I had upstairs. So, I wasn't fully prepared for tonight's shopping excursion.

When I was done with work for the day, my mom and I went to a local flooring store. YIKES, not only did I have to pick the style of carpet (still didn't want Frieze, but did I want plush or burbur, patterned or plain, what color). Making that decision took a while, but I am pretty sure I have an idea. Once the laminate is laid in the bar area, I'll bring a sample home and make my final decision. Next, we headed down to the home improvement store to pick up the primer/sealer for the drywall so Dad could spray that tomorrow. Next up in the process is painting both rooms. Initially, I thought that I had things picked out, but I like the texture on the walls so much I've decided not to do the Venitian Plaster in the bathroom.

As for the rec room, I know I want to do a specific style of painting, but the colors are still up in the air. So, instead of bringing home paint, I brought home lots and lots of paint samples (at least they're not all white). I have been staring at these for the past hour and a half and am no closer to making a decision than when I started.

For a variety of reasons, I need to get the painting done this weekend, preferably finishing the bathroom after work, leaving Saturday for the rec room itself, so I need to decide rather quickly. Some of the folks I work with have a joke that stems from long ago. When we find ourselves trying to troubleshoot something, we'll go wash our hands and hope for an Epiphany on what to do (ironically, it does seem to work most of the time - probably because we stop focusing so hard on the issue at hand). So, I'm going to go to bed, and hopefully when I get up in the morning, I'll wash my hands and the color choices will just come to me. If not, then in the next set of pictures I post, expect to see everything painted white.

From Basement to Rec Room at Breakneck Speed

I haven't blogged lately for a variety of reasons, but primarily because my basement remodel had gone absolutely nowhere. When you combine my schedule with my Dad's (who, like me, never knows what his schedule's like in advance) and my brother's (who, in addition to his day job serves on the church counsel, the church building committe - which has seen it's own remodeling project go ahead in the past month or so, the Plan Commission and Crimestoppers...whew, when DOES that boy sleep), it's been a challenge.

The thing is, I have plans for using the basement this year, and at the top of the list of which is when Santa and his crew come to visit all of my friends kiddos. An ever increasing population of kids really would fit in better in a rec room than in my living room with all the dangers that come along with my glass tables, glass entertainment center, open stairway, etc. Plus, I have other reasons for wanting the basement done. Not the least of which is, at some point yet this year, we are probably going to get severe weather while I'm home, and I'd rather sleep on a couch than on a piece of scrap carpet on the floor - more on this in a future post.

So, three weeks ago this past Saturday I picked up the pieces needed to add another drop for my central vac unit, since otherwise I couldn't clean downstairs. The pieces sat there for two weeks while Dad worked and JT was occupied with about 50 other things on his To Do List, as well as a weekend getaway for a friends "Bachelor Party." Finally, my mother had had enough, and pretty much told the guys if they didn't get the vaccuum piece in, she and I would do it.

A week ago yesterday Dad brought his good friend over and he helped calculate exactly how much wood we would need to stud the outside walls. That night, the vaccuum piece went in. Tuesday, Dad got the wood, and he and Mom carried it into the basement that night. By the time I got home Thursday night, the studs were in, and they'd started the electrical. WOW!!!

Of course, with things suddenly moving at the speed of a Category 5 hurricane, I kept myself busy this weekend. Friday after work was Trip 1 of the weekend to the Home Improvement Store to pick up lighting fixtures, cable and boxes for the TV connections, faucent for the sink (no room for the actual sink in this run) and return a couple of things that we didn't need after all. Saturday brought Trip 2 to the Home Improvement store, on my list this time: Vanity, Sink, and some other odds and ends stuff. Then, it was on to the furniture store to "look" at furniture. An hour later, I had ordered a couch and a rocker recliner. Sunday afternoon brought Trip 3 to the Home Improvement store, this time we picked up the toilet, the countertop, and tile for the bathroom floor. We were going to buy paint too, but ended up going home without that, but with questions for the Drywaller. My spare bedroom/home office is currently serving a third purpose, as holding area for all of my purchases.

Things haven't slowed down this week, yesterday the Drywaller was here and put up the sheetrock in both rooms. Last night, the plumber got all of the connections set up. Today the drywaller did all of the taping, and tomorrow he's going to start spraying on the finish, if everything dries. I have a day trip to Baltimore tomorrow, so it'll be exciting to see how much things have progressed when I get home tomorrow night. They figure by Friday they'll be ready for the primer.

So, here's what should be left by the end of the week:

Buy and install ceiling kit
Buy and install the can lights in the rec room
Install the wood laminate floor in the "bar" area
Buy the Venitian Plaster kit to paint the bathroom and paint (*)
Buy the paint and paint the rec room (two colors - rag painting) (*)
Install the tile flooring in the bathroom (*)
Install the bathroom light
Install the bathroom vanity, sink, and toilet
Find a carpet square pattern I like (at a reasonable price) and install that in the rec room. (*)
Put on the wood trim

To some, that may look like a long list, but given how fast the rest of this project has moved, I have high hopes that this will be done by mid-September. That is, of course, if I can get all of the items with an asterisk at the end done...those are things that require my involvement, and given the fact that my family, friends, and my family's friends have pulled up their bootstraps, I really can't be the holdup now, can I?

Note to self: Put "Request PTO" on the "To Do List"

Oh, and in case you were wondering if I got everything cleared out of these two rooms, the answer is yes (with the help of the parental units)....just don't pay attention to the clutter behind the curtain (or, in the storage room).