May

May 1st - Bruce got the all clear to go back to work.  Doctor had a hard time finding 2 of the 3 incisions, he was so well healed.  Bruce made it clear that "going back to work" meant lifting 60lb bags of concrete and laying brick.  He knew I'd be mad if he hadn't made that clear to the doctor.  2 weeks.. that's all it took to heal.  Remarkable!

May 1st was also Bruce's 69th birthday.   We went and picked up Chinese take out and had dinner at the kids house.  That's all he wanted.  

Sheet Rock wall

Finished getting drywall up 

Temporary light switch

Drywall around door & Switches

Took down the plastic wall and put up sheet rock instead.  Every time we opened the garage door the wind would pull the plastic out of the staples.  Bruce made a make shift switch for one of the kitchen lights.  Keeping more of the drywall dust out of the rest of the house.  Plus he could get the drywall up around the light switches for the kitchen and the family room.  More taping and sanding!  Worse part about having new drywall.   Molly said she likes the poka dot wall and was disappointed when it got painted and covered up.

We have made umpteen trips to every flooring store from here to Thousand Oaks this month.  Looks great in the store but we get it home and it doesn't look so good.  Went from Swedish Oak to laminate back to Oak.  Throw in a few Jatobas and Maples along the way.  Finally on the 25th, we ordered Brushed Antique Brown Oak flooring from Home Depot.  It was the only place we could find single planks (even in oak) rather than 2 or 3 boards glued together.  Trouble with those was then you have a 2 or 3 board seam that lines up.  My problem is that I loved our solid oak floors in Walnut Creek.  But down here we're on a slab.  Plus the dining room is dark and we felt we needed lighter floors.  This isn't as light as I think Bruce wanted, but I'm happy with it.

The cove molding is up in the family room and being painted for the dining room.  We moved the furniture back out of the dining room so we could tear up the flooring in there and in the entry way.  

My sewing room is still in tack.  Matter of fact, I've just finished quilting the quilt tops I showed you in April.  Needed to get backing fabric and batting.  Plus I threw the timing out on my longarm when I hit a 3/8" acrylic straight edge.  Tried to fix it my self but my eyes aren't as young as they were the last time I had to fix it.  Found a great repair guy that came to the house.  He had to take the bobbin casing home to polish it up from all the nicks so it would stop breaking thread.  Unfortunately, it's still breaking thread when I sew from right to left (normally you sew left to right).  I may have to order new inners.  But that will come after the flooring is done.

Showed Molly how to use my little sewing machine.  She put together this quilt top for her doll baby, Nicole.  I quilted it and asked her if she wanted to learn how to hand sew the binding or if I should do it.  She said she wanted to learn.  So proud of her.

Half of old wood floor up -dining area

Got the old oak flooring up from the dining area.  Lots of glue on the concrete.  We spent a day with chisels and hammers chipping away at the glue.  Memorial Day morning Bruce went and bought 2 Scrapper blades for his Sawzall.  Zip, zip in 5 minutes he had done as much as the two of us had done the day before!  Trouble is it takes a toll on his knees and back.  So he stopped and started attacking the tile in the entry.    You can tell my the type of glue where they had linoleum verses carpet verses wood from the original build.

Old tile Entry

As I'm typing this, Bruce just broke the blade in the Sawzall.  There's a small piece he can't get out.  

So glad to get rid of the old tile entry.  While chiseling it out we discovered they had linoleum squares from where the half wall is to the door.  Just as with the family linoleum floor, we're leaving it down and covering over it.  He'll just use some cement and smooth over the transition from linoleum to cement floor.  We did that up at the "barn" and it worked just fine.  All in all we've gone through 6 blades.  The metal is narrow where it fits in the Sawzall and it fatigues and breaks.

May 30th saw the end of the scrapping and chiseling.  The house is covered with a layer of dust.  Can't cook until I totally wipe down every surface before using it.  Have a plastic bag over my wood knife block to keep the dust off.

Saw my RA doctor yesterday.  The original medicine she put me on caused congestion in my lungs so after 6 weeks I had to stop taking them.  Glad cause they really made me depressed (another side effect).  So today I started a new drug.  I was hoping not to take any, but apparently RA can cause heart, lung, liver and kidney problems if you don't keep it in check.  It's not just about sore and swollen joints.  Hoping no side effects with this one, cause I'd like to get off the prednisone.  Hands are still swollen but not bad and not painful.  Feet hurt worse than the hands right now.  Signing up for membership at the PT place I've gone to before.  They have a heat pool and exercise equipment.  Just have to make myself go.  There is just so many other things that come up that seem more important.

Flooring should be here on June 6th.  We'll bring enough boxes in the house to accumulate for the two rooms and leave the rest in the garage.  Guess my car will have to live outside for awhile.   

I finally got my ribbon for the Penguin quilt.  Just in time for the guild historian to take a picture of it tomorrow.

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