Tinsley The Elf

Tinsley in his nightly resting place before bed

Tinsley emptied the kitchen cabinets last night

Adam and Derek pose with Tinsley after they found his hiding place

I think it was a couple years ago when Derek first mentioned how other kids in his class had an "elf" that visited their house from time to time. Each kid's elf did unique things, but the common theme seemed to be that the elf was mischievous and would do things like re-arrange the furniture during the night.

This year an elf showed up at our house. His name is Tinsley and he's an "ornament maker". The first night he left ornaments for the kids and left a note saying that he was still busy helping Santa get ready for Christmas, but would be available to "play" soon.

When Tinsley was finished with his elf duties he started showing up each night to "play". Each night the kids leave out crackers and water and sprinkle Tinsley with "magic snow flakes". Tinsley has organized all the other stuffed animals around the Christmas tree, built a tent in the family room, played board games, and emptied the kitchen cupboards.

The kids can't wait to come down and see what Tinsley has done each morning. Then they have to find Tinsley because he hides each night. Derek has been even more excited about Tinsley than Adam.

The New Column

Before

The new column is in. It was one those situations where the contractor didn't really help out much. They left it to us to decide what it should look like. We knew we wanted it to be fairly simple and more substantial than the previous column, but didn't know how big to make it. I went with 1 foot for the width, which is the width of the stucco keys. When it was done I wasn't so sure. Helen was sure - it was too big. She thought the steps were too big and was sure the column was too big. We decided that we would paint it and if we didn't like it then we would just have to pay someone to redo it. The column was supposed to be done before the house was painted, but it didn't get done, so I was not happy when the contractor informed us that painting was not included (?!). I ended up painting it myself. We weren't sure if it should be painted the shutter color or the trim color. Since it was so big already we decided to paint it the trim color. I think the color ended up picking up the trim line of the gable above the column and I thought the width matched the trim line as well. So I was happy with the column. It took other people telling Helen that the column needed to be that big to match everything else before Helen was OK with it.

We thought we would be done by now, but the contractor messed up when they applied the sealant to the paver walkways. They didn't fully clean the polymeric joint sand before applying the sealant. I printed off the joint sand installation instructions from the manufacturer's website and told the contractor that they were applying the sand improperly when they were putting it in. They insisted they knew what they were doing and it would look good. I trusted them - they're the pro's right? Wrong! I pointed out how they didn't even bother to push back the mulch where it extended over the edge of the walkway and how the sand had adhered to the paver surface and was now sealed in. Instead of admitting their mistake, the contractor told me in an offhanded way that there were different ways to do things and that I should go into the paver business if I knew so much about it. I didn't back down and showed the owner the installation instructions again and where they didn't follow them. Tempers settled down and they agreed to power wash and reseal, but I'm not too confident. It doesn't look terrible - just more rustic and rough than what it should be. It will all wear off from weathering over time.

When a shower is your most ambitious goal

We weren't quite that bad off this weekend, but pretty close. We were all exhausted and in bed by 8:00 on Friday night. I had committed to play tennis on Saturday morning and Helen was not happy about it. I wasn't feeling great, but was looking forward to doing something after being sick for so long. Helen felt my head and said that I was warm. I agreed that I wouldn't play if I had a fever. She got the thermometer and, sure enough, I had a fever. I called around to find someone to replace me, but it ended up being a hassle and after a few calls I quit trying and decided that I would just play.

Adam had his first basketball game of the season at 9 on Saturday, so we all had to get up and moving early. Adam's team is the Celtics. Last year was his first year of basketball and we don't think he scored a basket. He made a basket in this game and he was so excited.

Helen was worried about me playing tennis and came to watch my match after the basketball game. I was taking the antibiotic Levaquin, which comes with an FDA warning label about tendon ruptures being a known side-effect. All she could think about was me lying there writhing in pain with a ruptured achilles. Thankfully, nothing bad happened and we even won the match. One of the guys I played against said that he had just gotten over a sinus infection - after 28 days. He said a guy in his office had the same thing and took about a month as well to kick it. It's bad stuff.

Derek had a basketball game at 1:00. He's on the Grizzlies this year. Derek was a little under the weather, but he did good and even made a basket.

After the game we knew that we needed to get something to eat on the way home because we were all too tired to go back out once we got home. We decided to try the new Flying Biscuit restaurant that opened nearby. We've tried to go a couple times, but it was always too crowded. We've never been to the original so we can't compare, but we weren't impressed. Our biscuits were all rock-hard. They were actually better the next day when we heated them up in the microwave. Maybe it was the fact that we were eating at 3:30 in the afternoon instead of normal breakfast hours.

The rest of the weekend was spent laying around and napping off and on and trying to muster enough energy for that elusive shower. I think I've turned the corner, but Helen is a little behind me and is still very fatigued.

I had gotten the Christmas stuff down from the attic the day before Thanksgiving when I had a little more energy and the boys have been decorating a little a time.

We're All Sick

We're in the midst of the longest period ever of continuous sickness in our house. I had strep throat and a sinus infection a few weeks ago. I finished a round of antibiotics and was feeling better for few days and then got knocked down again. I started another round, but don't think it's bacterial because I haven't been feeling better on the antibiotics. Adam also has a sinus infection and is finishing up his antibiotics. He missed some school and still has a cough, but is feeling better. Derek felt bad for a few days and still has a cough, but he seems to have kicked it. Helen nursed us all through and then came down with what I have - achy, sinus pain, earache, and terrible soar throat. It seems to be going around her school as well. She says it is the worst she's ever seen it in terms of the number of kids and teachers being sick. We're all ready to be better. Derek said that he hoped that he felt better in time for Christmas. Here's to hoping.

Catching Up With Lindsay

Here are some photos from when Lindsay was staying with us last month on the weekends.

Home Projects #3 & 4: Painting and Landscaping

Home improvement project #3 was to paint the house. As with all the projects, I spent a lot of time talking with contractors and hashing out bids. Even with some of the hiccups on the garage we ended up going with the same company - although it was a different crew. They replaced a lot of rotten wood, put in new larger soffit vents, and boarded up our gable vents (which is evidently what you're supposed to do if you have ridge vents on your roof).

We spent a lot of time picking out paint colors. We picked some colors and were ready to go with them and then panicked the day the painters showed up. Helen went out and picked up several more colors and with the help of Cheryl, the painting company owner, we applied several different color scheme samples on the house and stood back and evaluated them. We wanted the paint scheme to be more "craftsman-like" to show off our new stone steps and walkways. In the end we went back to the original colors, but were concerned that the base color would not be dark enough. The base color ended up looking much nicer once it was applied and accented with the trim colors. We were very happy with the job and thought that the colors really worked well with our new steps\walkways and transformed the look of our house to the "craftsman" feel we were going for.

Home improvement project #4 was landscaping. When I was originally talking to Mike, the owner, of the company that did the steps, walkways, and landscaping, he sensed that I was all over the place and recommended a landscape designer. The designer, Chris, axed the idea of a front porch we were leaning towards and said that we would get more bang for the buck with a nice entryway and landscaping. He put together a plan for us that we were very happy with. We waited to install the landscaping until after the painters were done so that they wouldn't trample everything. The landscaping really pulled it all together. We've been getting lots of compliments from neighbors who, like us, think it was an incredible transformation.

There's still a few things remaining: a real wood column (the beam there now is just a support), landscape lighting, and sealing the walkways to give them a deeper richer look. We're in the home stretch now.

Home Project #2 (Install): New Landing, Steps, Walkways

Extending the landing and footing for new steps

New paver walkway and steps

New paver walkway from garage entry door to back porch

Finished steps and house painting in progress

Our front door landing was settling and pulling away from the house, there was rotten wood behind it, and the stucco covering required constant patching. Also, we never liked how our landing and steps were recessed behind the garage wall. We wanted to extend the steps and flare them out into the yard for a more welcoming entry way.

The new landing and steps turned out great. The job was very labor intensive, loud, and dirty as the crew did a lot of stone cutting. The dust and debris were everywhere, but in the end we were very happy. We had planned that the landing extension be on the same level as the existing landing, but I came home one night to check out the progress and noticed that the extension was 4-6 inches lower. The more I looked at it the more I liked it. I called the contractor and they said that they had just run out of material, but still planned to raise the extension. I told them to leave it like it was and make the landing multi-level, which led to the railing stepping down as well. It was a really nice effect. We had also planned to do iron railing, but worked out the stone railing on the fly and it turned out great.

Home Project #2 (Demo): New Landing, Steps, Walkways

Our house before

Cutting into the driveway and demo of old sidewalk

Cutting out the new meandering walkway

Rotten woodwork beneath the old front door landing

After the demo

Home project number 2 was to fix the sagging front door landing, extend the steps, and replace the old sidewalks with nice walkways. We agreed to do the job on Sunday night and the next morning about 5 am our whole street was awoken by the sounds of a big construction dumpster being unloaded in front of our house. A crew of about 8 guys showed up and demolished everything and cut out the new walkway paths in a single day - with sledge hammers and shovels. The only power tool was the saw to make the curved cut in the driveway. We were impressed.

Home Project #1: The Garage

I've been too busy to blog lately. One of the reasons is that I've been obsessed with the home improvement projects we've undertaken. The first project was to have the garage painted - floor and all. There were a number of drywall repairs from things like the bathtub leaking above, the water heater busting, and various wear and tear. We also had all the wood trim stain freshened up.

[Edit: I guess, technically the garage is the second project - cutting the trees down was the first]

I'm, evidently, pretty picky as the crew that painted the garage let me know. I think they estimated 2-3 days and it took 5 days. I told them up front that I wanted it to look like new - like new construction. After about the 3rd day, we could tell that the crew wanted to tie things up, but we were persistent about imperfections that we saw. Overall we were happy with the results, but disappointed that we had to be the bad guy and push the crew to finish the job right.

All our stuff was strewn on our driveway for a week and even when the job was finished, for weeks we had to leave our cars on the driveway until the tires cooled so that the hot rubber on the tires wouldn't ruin the new epoxy paint on the floor.

The epoxy floors turned out OK. They probably should have gotten 2 coats, but the application process is to throw on the little decorative specks while the paint is wet, so the crew threw on the specks and we didn't realize until the next day that the coverage wasn't as good as we had hoped. Oh well. It still looks really nice. Now when Helen tells me to just go live in the garage - I might take her up on it.