Appliance breakdown week

I'm definitely not a blogger but I thought I'd share our little project from last week.  I'll try to be short. And I'm not checking my spelling or grammer.

Last Monday Paul informs me the garage door opener and furnace has gone out at our rental house.  A couple of phone calls and he's on it.  I inform him I think our washer has just died.  He is not that concerned and I have actually been expecting it's demise seeing the abuse it receives.  I do A LOT of laundry.  I need a working washing machine.

Unfortunately, I'm correct so I take the 100 pounds of soaking wet towels out and lug them up to my mom's washer to finish them (luckily they have a functioning laundry room).  Paul makes a phone call to get that helpful appliance repair man's number again.

$69 later I'm made aware of the fact that my washer needs like $400 of repairs and that it is not worth fixing.  Repair man Nathan recommends getting a newspaper and shopping for a 10 year old Kenmore washer.  Do I have a newspaper he asks? Well, no I suppose I could get one but better yet...I have a computer and craigslist.com.  Within minutes I find one of the washers he referred to for $100.  I show him the pictures and he about does a cartwheel.  This is the last washer you'll ever need, it's so easy to fix, it's so cheap...ok, ok I'm convinced.  He even offers to pick it up.  I should've taken him up on it.

The next day, Paul's van breaks down.

Friday we are finally able to contact the seller and pick up the washer.  The seller calls to tell Paul it's NOT working as the ad told us so Paul offers him $50.  He is a bit skeptical but has faith and brings it home. It pretty much falls apart as I help him take it out of the van.  Now I'm a little skeptical.

We spend a late night taking the thing entirely apart and cleaning it.  We find the date: it's from 1998.  Good thing Paul is mechanically inclined.  Here come the pictures which are not pleasant.  Thankfully, I'm armed with gloves and ammonia which I believe were both necessary in this instance. 

The worst part is the essence of cigarette smoke.  I just cleaned more.  I'm thinking from the beginning of this fiasco: this is going to be my washer for life??  Well, it better start looking cuter than this.  Pinterest, help me out...

http://www.tipjunkie.com/diy-decorating/paint/how-to-paint-a-washing-machine-tutorial 

Thanks for the inspiration, tipjunkie!

I really wanted orange and was prepared to paint this thing with a custom color and paint brush.  Paul, rationally, talked me out of it.  Spray paint with Rustoleum is the answer.  Unfortunately, that limits our options.  'Safety orange' is the only orange they have.  We try it but just can't live with it.  We didn't catch a pic but it reminds both of us of Steve's old truck which I did really like.  Just not for my washer.

 Back to Menards we go a second time.  The kids joke that Daddy owns the place.

 We can both agree on Lagoon.  First we wire brush some rust then prime then paint.  Paul has a confession: he really likes spray painting.  I'm glad to hear that because I would ruin the thing.

At this point, we're getting excited.  It's turning out really cool.

 I keep a couple of the knobs from the dead GE since they look nicer and fit the new Kenmore.

The next late night we move the lagoon colored hunk of metal from the garage to the laundry room and reassemble.  

We painted over the control area so I write it in with a silver sharpie.  It's still kind of falling apart.  I'd already made an appointment for repair man Nathan to come get it running again so we leave it for the morning.

It turns out to have a broken something or other which only costs $24 and a couple of $4 brackets missing which is why it kept falling apart.  

These are easily remedied and we are back in business.  Only $147 plus about $20 for paint later...not too bad!

Here's the punch line:  I really like my new/old washer!  It runs great and looks awesome.  I'm inspired to give the laundry room a new look, too.

 Next up is that boring white dryer!

A couple of things I learned during this process:

Never use liquid detergent.  Evidently, it leaves a thick nasty sludge in there.  I was a witness to that while cleaning this old one.  Utterly disgusting.  Powder is supposedly the way to go.  This reminded me I have made my own powder detergent before so I set out to get the ingredients again.

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/home/make-your-own-laundry-soap.htm

I love that.  Easy, saves money and better for the environment and my beloved lagoon washer (I really need a name for this thing).

This next point may be a little controversial.  Top loaders clean your clothes better.  Yes, they use more water but that's the point.  They get the clothes in the water and agitate the dirt out.  Old fashioned is good in this case.

Next, stay away from expensive, computer run machines in your life.  Simple mechanics are easier to manage financially and maintain yourself.  At least that's what I'm taking from this.  It was the best news I'd heard in a while!!!


 

Summer's almost over!

We've just been keeping busy doing the normal stuff. Trying to enjoy the nice weather as much as possible with walks to one of the nearby parks in the evenings. Paul is still pretty busy with work. I'm still not back yet until things slow down for him and Cooper is a little more predictable. He has started eating solids-a little rice cereal, avocado and banana. He totally loves it. He goes down well at night but no, to answer the most FAQ, he's not sleeping through the night. But at least I'm not expecting him to so I'm not disappointed! He had his 4 month appt last month and is almost 14 pounds. As far as percentiles he's 25th weight, 50th height. Still a bit smaller than Gabe at the same time. He's rolling around and overall doing really great. Gabe finished his little 6 week day class. I think I'm going to wait until he's 3 so he can do the preschool-like class they offer. He "graduated" to the next level in swim lessons...he is now a tadpole. (Which makes me think, what comes before a tadpole?!) Anyway, they start trying to wean the parent out of the pool. It will probably take a couple classes until we're at that point. And Cooper starts swimming lessons next month, can't wait!
I almost forgot the excitement from today-Gabe rode his tricycle down the sidewalk past at least 2 houses. The most he'd done before was several pedals in row. And, I caught it on tape!
Auntie Brandie will be up for a visit at the end of the month. We're really looking forward to that. We are all going to do a little getaway to MI together while she's here. Should be fun.
Of course we're thinking about the next thing to do on the house. We are almost finished with the front door which looks really nice. Probably going to be doing windows before winter. We're planning on building bunk beds too soon since Gabe will need a 'big boy bed' before too long so Cooper can have the crib. Always something but that's how we roll.

4th of July weekend

What a fun weekend! Friday Paul got off early from work so we all went to the pool together and met Susan and baby James. Then out to dinner with Bill and Melissa for Melissa's birthday at Chili's. Delicious margaritas. Saturday morning we walked to Castaldo Park for the cheap hot dogs and beer. All the kids had their fireworks t-shirts we made, they turned out so cute (Suzi's idea, thanks!). It rained the whole time but it didn't stop all of Woodridge. We cut out a bit early to head to Sue's annual barbeque at her place in Winfield. We moved to the garage due to the rain but Paul still caught 11 fish. Dan wouldn't give up and got one also. Aunt Amy and Aunt Patty were in as usual for the week, we also saw them for a movie and dinner last week. Joan came in for the weekend. It was great to see everyone. We spent the rest of the day there. We stopped on the way home and saw fireworks (Warrenville's, we think) which were great. Gabe wanted me to cover his eyes. I'm not sure why but he peeked through and watched them anyway. He really ended up liking them. Cooper stared! Couldn't pull his eyes away. Sunday was productive. We dug all the weeds out of the 'prairie' unintenionally growing in our backyard. Now we just have to decide what to do next. That's another story. Sunday afternoon we went to celebrate Billy's 1st birthday. What a cutie! Home for more yard work after that. It never ends but check out my lillies...I am getting some satisfaction from this work!

Cooper had his 3 month birthday. He is reaching out and touching everything with a look of complete concentration on his face. So fun to watch and cheer him on. Gabe is starting his "Early Beginnings" class tomorrow. All 2 year olds, no parents, 2 teachers (good luck, right?). They will do a craft, sing songs, play in the gym, have a snack, etc. I'm excited. I'll keep you all posted how it goes.

What's going on

I realized I'm always saying how busy we are but to look at our blog you would think we're pretty lame. I just don't want to bore anyone but I guess some of the out-of-towners may find it interesting. So, I'm just going to blog about what's going on with us more frequently. Mostly, it's all about the kids! Cooper is nearing 3 months old. He is smiley and likes to talk in oohs and aahs with different facial expressions to accompany his "words". It really cracks us up. He got a pretty good head cold when he was only 3 weeks old and took 4-5 weeks to totally shake it. Then we had his 2 month appt where he got a couple vaccinations. That next week he was clearly more fussy and uncomfortable. And of course he started with another runny nose. Finally, he seems to be better overall and actually slept 5 and a half hours straight last night, his longest yet. He eyes are still blue. He really looks a lot like Paul.

Gabe is almost 28 months. And getting smarter everyday. He is such a talker. He contemplates everything that happens and talks about it later. Lately, everything that has ever happened to him is "yesterday". Like today at lunch it was "yesterday grandma sprinkled some coriander seeds on my food with her grinder". Which, yes, did happen but not yesterday...last Saturday!! He is very interested in cars. Watching them on the street and pushing around his matchbox cars. Now he is into the make of every car. He knows Ford, Honda, Toyota, Jeep, Chevy just by seeing them pass by. And he's right every time! Amazing. We've been using this website starfall.com with him for over a year and he totally loves it. It is like a free preschool curriculum which he started just by looking at for a couple minutes then to naming everything and now recognizing and sounding out the entire alphabet. So, we've moved on to the short stories that teach 3 letter words. He also, on the recommendation of several people, watches the letter factory and word factory on DVD. I just bought him the magnetic word machine leapfrog makes so he is putting words together on that with our help.

So far Gabe is getting along with Cooper pretty well. Occasionally, he gets a little agitated when Cooper is crying but then so do I!! He tells him Shh, stop crying. The other day he said "stop crying, mommy's driving"!! And, sometimes he's the protective older brother already. When we're out a playdate he'll say to his friends Shh, Cooper's sleeping. It's really just because he hears us say that. Once in awhile he says "can you put him down in his vibrating chair (or in his bed, it's always specific!) and pick up me?" Yes, of course. He has been having a "sleepover" at Grandma's for one night most weekends. He loves going there and I'm sure benefits from the one on one time.

My latest project was the front landscaping. Check out the pictures, I have to admit I'm proud of myself since I'm really not too fond of gardening. We got to it a little late but it's done. We only planted half the front last year. We were planning to put up another retaining wall along the sidewalk. Paul said he just didn't feel like doing it now so let's just mulch it, at least it'll looks nice. So Tuesday this week I got the mulch and threw it down. After it was down I told Paul it would look nice if we just planted it as is so I went shopping for plants with Gabe that night and the next morning. Luckily, Cooper took a nice nap while Gabe 'helped'. It was a beautiful day and I just decided to plow through it. It went pretty well until I overturned an ant nest. Doesn't sound like a big deal but there were THOUSANDS of tiny ants. Gabe came over and was using his little shovel and then says to me "ants are crawling on my pants". Sure enough, ants all over him. He got stripped of clothing and brought inside...nap time anyway. I went back to work--in sandals. Ants start crawling all over my feet and legs BITING me. For those of you who know, I'm not too fond of bugs. It was a panic-stricken day! We planted 2 Dogwoods, 2 wine and roses weigela flowering bushes, 2 wintercreeper bushes, 2 lavender plants plus I seeded along the edge of the sidewalk, a few hostas I transplanted from the side of the house where we have tons, a sand cherry bush and some marigolds Gabe picked (yellow of course). The soil in the area is terrible. Clay or rocks or both. Hopefully it all doesn't die. Now I hate ants...

Paul has been busy with work. Kucia work and his own. Just finished a big deck around a pool. I am working on making him a website to display pictures of his work and contact info. That way when he hands out cards people can check him out on the web. I'll let you all know when it's ready so we can get some feedback. It's not as easy as I thought. He's been working most evenings but has taken a few off so we can do some family things. We went to a free concert that is part of Woodridge's summer programs. It was actually a band I've seen several times and really like: Underwater People. Gabriel really liked it and Cooper actually slept. Gabe said that guy was playing a violin (actually a guitar but he always thinks they're violins). This weekend we are going to the Jubilee (woodridge's summer fest) to meet some friends. We have a bunch of birthday parties to look forward to the next several weekends.
More later!

Cooper is 2 months old

Cooper went for his 2 month pediatrician's appointment this past week. He was around the 25th percentile: 10 lb 14 oz. Gabe was a whole pound bigger at the same time. So Cooper is a little guy I guess. Fine with me!
Cooper and Gabe are still getting along very well. Gabe loves to try and help. Whenever Cooper is crying he says "do you need to pick him up?"
I took Gabe for his first movie at the theatre. It was great. I don't think he quite understood what he was in for. I tried explaining it would be on a big screen and we would sit in special seats, etc. We got our tickets, he took his and handed it to the ticket taker. Then I let him pick out any candy he wanted, of course he chose sour patch kids. When we went in the theatre it was already dark and we sat down...he was totally stunned, mouth open, staring at the screen. To top it off, it was 3D. I didn't think he would keep the glasses on but he did for the whole entire movie! He just sat there so good. I probably had as much fun watching him as he had watching the movie. I can't wait to take him to the next one!

Cooper's First Doctor's Appt

We took Cooper Daniel to his first pediatrician's appointment and it went really well. He weighed 7 lb 8 oz at birth and it is normal for a newborn to lose up to 10% of their body weight. Cooper weighed 7 lb 5 oz when discharged from the hospital and was up to 7 lb 9.5 oz today! They said it usually takes 10-14 days for babies to return to their birth weight. Does that tell you how much he's eating?! Everything checked out good head to toe, no problems at all. And he tolerated the car ride which pleases us as well!

Cooper Daniel is here

It's a boy! Cooper Daniel was born on April 2, 2009 at 5:28 am weighing 7 pounds 8 ounces and 20 inches. Labor started in the afternoon on the 1st. We got to the hospital (Alexian Brothers) at 2 am and it wasn't long after that. Everything went so great. He was alert and quiet right from the moment he was born. We got home from the hospital on Friday afternoon. Big brother Gabe has been slowly checking him out. In case you're wondering, there isn't too much behind the name Cooper other than we just really loved it. It is an english name meaning barrel maker. Daniel is Paul's middle name and a good biblical name. It's hard to believe we are 4 now! It is such an amazing experience having children. The best events in our lives!