Contractors

I ran out today and hit four thrift stores before I found what I was looking for, a table top that I can cut down to make the wood countertop that I want. Maple butcher block is extremely expensive. I found the table I could use.  I barely got it to fit in the trunk. It did not fit in the car, the doors wouldn't shut. I put the seats down and the table top fit snugly in the back but I couldn't close the trunk, so I drove home with the trunk open.

I got a call from a contractor that I wanted to see the job. I have had a few bids. The guy I want to work with is not available for a month. After gutting the top of the island I am in  trouble. I  had to get the island fixed and fast. Tom is out of town. If I can get it all done before he gets back he will be thrilled with the results. The job is right on the border of my being able to do it myself, but with time being so critical I thought a contractor could get it done faster.

One contractor stopped by but said he wasn't available. He gave me the name and number of someone he thought might be available. Turns out this new guy was the original cabinet maker who installed the kitchen to begin with. He liked the tall cabinets and was not happy that I had ripped out his good work. That conversation did not end well. He said he was a master cabinet maker and wanted to charge me $40 an hour including the shopping for materials. He didn't want the job. We were definitely not on the same wave length. I offended him. My Thrift store maple counter just made him mad.

Time being critical, I called my girl friend back who helped me get into this mess. Her husband is a great DIYer.  She offered up his services after he got home from work. When he arrived he rolled his eyes at what we had done to the kitchen. I have a vision. He didn't see it. But he was, out of the goodness of his heart going to take pity on me and help me out of this mess. 

He spent an hour fussing with the stove, which I didn't even notice wasn't level. He is a perfectionist.  He was checking out the way the island was put together and the options I have,  and ended up  fixing the level of the stove. After much eye rolling and commentary, he finally agreed to cut the table top down to size so it will fit. He didn't want me doing the cuts, so he said he would do them tomorrow. He left with the slab in his arms, his wife laughing at us both.

A problem is the corner gaps. The back of the now exposed cabinets is unfinished and open at points . Another problem is the cabinet base is still there,  The base that the towers sat on. It is one long unit that goes under the existing cabinet that we are leaving in place. What do I do with the corner base? How do I hide the base? How do I hide the gaps in the cabinets?  Do I make a false wall? or build shelves of less depth than the original cabinets, and have them end under the counter, not a foot above  the counter.

The kitchen feels like it can breath now with the towers gone. I don't see this fix as a long term fix, but I can go a long time now without doing the big remodel, now that the island can function as a work station. 

Everything gets recycled.The tower cabinets need to be reinforced before I can hang them up on the wall where I need to put them. I need them hung so I can put my china away again. Right now everything is on the dining room table waiting for a new home. Tomorrow I am off to the hardware store to get long wall screws and a ledger board.

The cool thing about this project is I am hoping to get it all done for much  less than $100. My first bid was some where  under $1000, for replacing the island, between $500 and $800. So far I have spent $25 on the counter top. It isn't perfect but the maple counter is pretty.

Shelves are a lot of work. My thought is to use cabinet doors or paneling and just cover the gaps for now. Cover the base with ply wood and put a pretty post that looks like a support post on the top, a  little decorative detailing.  I hope to find something really perfect at habitat for the humanities that works.  The key will be finding the right sizes in the materials I need.

I can do this. It is not the first time I have gotten into a project, but I do want it to look good when I am done.            

Uh Oh

I knew I couldn't resist for much longer. I have been contemplating that kitchen and hating that island with the two tall corner cabinets making the counter unworkable. My girl friend came over. she has heard the complaining once too often. Before we knew it, the tools were out and the tall corner cabinets and counters were removed, leaving big deep holes in the corners of my island. Now I need a new counter top pronto.

We took crow bars and hammers to the tops of the cabinets to remove the funky tiles so the cabinets can be rehung flush to the wall in another room. They will make a great china hutch. It was so much fun, but looking at the island now, I realize I must fix the side walls and the top. Tom is away until Wednesday, working. I will have it all fixed by Wednesday, I will!!!

I am thinking of picking up a table top and just laying it on top. That will work. I know it will. I am in trouble, maybe. It does look so much better even in demolition stage. What were they thinking to put those towering corner cabinets in a work island. Well, they are gone now and I have elbow room. Oh dear, what have I done?

Advisors

The boys were supposed to call me to ask which morning was more convenient to have me come meet with their advisors. They didn't call, figured I was always available for them I guess, which I am. I canceled my golf round and lunch. The other day would have been so much better. I was totally free on the other option day, no plans to cancel.  These are student lead meetings. Well worth the time as they discuss the needs of graduation and planning for their futures.

Riley hadn't realized that when a teacher hands you an exemplary work   card with an assignment it is to be dropped at the advisor's office to be held until senior project presentation. A student needs 12 of these from different classes. Riley was using his exemplary card as a book mark. He had already thrown out the assignment from last semester. He told me it was a good thing he used it as a book mark as he would have tossed it also. He thought that it was just an extra congratulations on a job well done. He didn't know how significant those notes were from the teachers. He had to dig out of the garbage bag in his room two more. We had cleaned out his out of control back pack just the week before, but smart boy that he is, he told me he would not throw the bag of papers away until the semester was over. Now he had to dig into the big bag to find those exemplary notes from his science class to give to his advisor for safe keeping.

I signed Riley up for summer school to make up for work he needed in order to graduate. I also signed Trevor up for summer school as he needed a state history class that everyone else already had in eighth grade. He had an awesome state history class from his old school, but wrong state.

Trevor's advisor asked him what he wanted to be when he graduated. He said at first he didn't know until I mentioned "What about aviation?" He spent the next five minutes discussing aviation as an option. He loved it, but worried his size would take him out of the cockpit.  The advisor asked about Airforce, but Trevor down played that with telling her most military are putting out drones instead of pilots. That scout trip to the airport to receive his merit badge was wonderful for Trevor. He really absorbed a lot of information on that trip. Scouts has been a wonderful venue for Trevor, though a sore point for Tom and myself. I am trying to participate where I wont offend Tom's male disposition.

Trevor understood what the exemplary work was. He had a poster from his English class already in the drawer. He said he had two more exemplary works coming for this year from other classes. Both sessions went well with the Advisors.

I found out from a friend that Riley could challenge the GED, start running start at the Community College and stay enrolled in High School. His College classes would go towards graduation and he would graduate with an Associates Degree and his High School Diploma. He might be more challenged and take his work more seriously if he is taking College classes.

I am going to find out when the community college is offering the GED challenge. I was thinking I might wait until the SAT scores come in to find out if it is something I should pursue this soon. Riley will will be a Junior next year. He is not in sports, so there would be no penalties in having him take the classes at the community College. Trevor is more the typical High School Teen. Just checking all our options. Getting two years of college free has value.

Urgent Care

I got one of those calls from school. When ever a call comes from school it is usually not good. Trev was on the line. "I did something to my wrist , Mom. Can you come get me?".

"What did you do?"

"In football practice, some one fell on it. I can't feel my thumb and I can barely move my fingers.Iit hurts really bad."

" I am on my way."

Before I leave the house, I call the doctor's office to see if I can get an appointment. It is 4:10 pm. The earliest Trev can be seen is 6:45pm. I take it. Two hours is still better than the ER option.

When I pick up Trevor, I can see his wrist is swollen and tender. It doesn't look bad, but it hurts. I tell the coach that is with him, I will have it looked at tonight. We head home to wait the two hours for our appointment at urgent care. I give Trev an ice pack and four ibeprophen for the pain and anti inflamitory benifits.

We get to the doctor's office right at 6:45 and have to wait another fifteen minutes in the lobby. Once in the room it is another 10 minutes. The nurse takes Trev's weight and temperature and blood pressure. 144 pounds, 98.4, and 110 over 58. That low blood pressure is a genetic trait. The doctor comes in and manipulates Trevor's wrist. He tells Trev to relax and not to pull away. Once he is done he tells us it is just a sprain. Had Trevor broken his wrist or a bone in his hand,  he would have been screaming in pain with what the doctor had just done. He said only an x-ray would show for sure, but he could save us some money because it is pretty much a sprain.

Wrap the wrist for practice after taking a day or two off, otherwise use the the hand normally. The new rule is not to let the muscles atrophy or stiffen up, no wrapping, use the limb as  normally as you can.

Good news, as that means Trev wont miss the football camp coming up in two weeks, right after school gets out. We left the doctor's office at 7:20 pm. A nurse wrapped Trev's wrist in an ace bandage just for the evening.  We spent less than five minutes with the doctor. That left us time to catch the end of a local baseball game we had been invited to watch.

One of our friends was throwing the first pitch for the game. We had missed seeing that but arrived in time for the sixth inning. I ordered hamburger and pop for Trev for dinner. Our seats were in a special area,  where the food was brought to us. We didn't have to stand in line. After the game there were opening season fire works. We could see guys with flares, used to light the mortars, through the shear fence lining. A few fireworks didn't launch high enough and finished burning after they came back down to the ground.  That was exciting, seeing the people behind  the curtain dive for safety, wondering if a spark might hit the other fireworks waiting to launch. They were surprisingly great fireworks, close up and big. It wasn't quite dark enough, but the game had ended probably more quickly than anticipated.

It was a lovely way to end a potentially rough day. Trevor did not have a broken wrist as he thought he might and would be fine in a few days. It will cost me $200 when the bill comes for urgent care, but best to be safe and know for sure than to end up missing school later. If I hadn't taken Trevor, the wrist would probably have been broken.         

Tents

I can't help myself, I have to share this latest conversation, because it is so humorous to me.   My mom went to a recent garage sale and saw a camping tent. She had heard how much fun we had at the beach, tenting. She had seen the tents set up, right before she raced away to leave us to our play time, so she wouldn't stress as we ran wild on her land.   She bought the tent then called me to tell me that she now had a tent we could use at the beach, big like mine. Her parting comment was to just be gentle with it, don't break it.

That is what cracked me up. The whole point of my bringing down my tent was that if it got broken it was mine. Not some special thing that we had to be careful with. Not that I wouldn't yell at my boys or anybody if they weren't careful with it or other peoples. But I have seen the boys wrestling with friends  inside the tent, the sides of the tent rolling and bowing  with the bodies inside. They forget to be careful.  The thing is, it would be my stuff breaking not hers. I would not have to carry any guilt or figure out how to fix it before mom found out. I could yell at my boys and then let it go. It just takes an instant of not being vigilant for something to go crack. I don't like to police that much. I want to relax and close my eyes and hang out, be on vacation. Give the boys room to be wild, just outside.

Tory didn't have room in her car for any more stuff than she brought. She had left her tent at home as a result. Something had to give with a full car load of teens and sleeping bags and any paraphernalia they had wanted to bring along. I once went on a big group vacation with a woman who traveled with her espresso machine. Couldn't live without it.  The cars were full.

My car was full. I have a roof box for expansion. I bring everything with me just in case. This trip we used everything I brought. I didn't even have to bring much food as it was all being prepared for us as part of the weekend.  

Buying the tent was very thoughtful, and a great overflow back up plan. Tory will love it, not having to figure out how to bring down her own in an already overfull car. I can bring even more people and  have even more children and dogs out into the  tents. Just kidding Mom. But really you missed the point of my bring down my own tent, keeping everyone out of the barn where your special things could get broken. Minimizing the damage and giving the kids an alternate place to hang out without adults sitting right next to them. Not that you can't hear the conversations right through the tent walls, which is one reason I love tents. The kids tend to forget we are outside listening if they can't see us.

Tents do take some work. You have to let them dry out. Don't put them away wet or they mold. When rolling mine up I had to flick baby slugs off the bottom as I folded. I should have had a plastic tarp underneath, but my old tarp had been torn up covering Tom's car during a winter snow. Easier to flick a tarp off  the car than scrape snow off the windows in the morning before work.  

We love the beach, the big open property to just plop down. The excellent bathroom facilities and access to electricity and water.  Camping with all the conveniences. Mom even had the bathroom newly painted and it looked fantastic.

I do bring my own drinking water. The house and barn are on a shallow well. I mean really shallow. Green algae commonly pours out in your glass. Especially by the end of summer as the well dries up.  Don't make ice with it either.

Tory was a little upset when I warned the visiting girls not to even rinse their toothbrushes in the sink. My thought was there is only one bathroom with one toilet. If you ever have had a reaction to accidentally digesting bad water, it is not pretty. I once had to undress myself in the shower while guzzling pepto. We only needed one person to get sick to ruin the weekend, and tie up the bathroom.  

I bring down a big five gallon water cooler with me full of my city water, every time I come. My system and my kids are  used to it and no one will have a bad reaction. I keep it on the bench outside the house. It also helps  keep everyone outside more, since they aren't traipsing into the house to get water from the kitchen sink. I put a cup on top of the cooler for convenience and we all stay healthy and hydrated and outside.

There is a spigot at the front of the property that is on the local water system. When the cooler runs dry you can refill it with treated water.  But this weekend  I was hearing that all the home owners were in town to discuss a water issue. The main line may be cracked and surface water getting into the system. The local water had tested positive for contaminates. This weekend we would just live on the water we had brought down with us or buy at the store.

I have to share one other funny tale of the weekend. Trevor was doing his usual eating like a horse. Sunday morning, he brought out the bowl of hot dogs in the refrigerator, for breakfast cooking over the fire. The adults were all sitting around the fire talking and enjoying the morning. We all told him he could not eat the whole bowl as there were others that would want some hot dogs later. He said that was fine he would only eat a couple of hot dogs. He proceeded to put the bowl on the ground while he cooked his dogs on the skewers.

 I am lying prone on the cot next to his chair, moments later, I hear the dogs licking something. I look down at the now empty bowl. It hadn't taken seconds for the dogs to sneak in for the kill. Luckily all that had been left in the bowl were the cheap hot dogs I had brought down, the 89 cent pack from winco. The good sausage dogs we had eaten the night before. The dogs got a treat. We all yelled and laughed at Trevor for being such an idiot, putting the bowl on the ground with the dogs running around.

 The dogs are never far from the food, just waiting for this kind of moment. Trevor gave them their dream, a whole bowl full of meat. By the time I looked down they were licking the juices out of the bowl. They must have inhaled those hot dogs whole, quietly, with no fighting that might  draw attention to their activities. They were in heaven.   

I can't wait until our next trip to the beach. Every time we go it is a unique and spectacularly fun experience for everyone.

The beach

I had friends that wanted to play over the Memorial weekend. I was trying to figure out if we wanted to go to the farm or the beach. Tory had the beach house. I decided to see if she wanted company. I could bring the party to her.  Not many people want to hang with William, which means she doesn't get much adult social life. I don't see her very often myself.

 The beach is a big enough place that we can play with Tory's family yet still have room. Besides my plan was to do just one night then beat the  hell out of there before something was broken.

My mom has "treasures" all over the place. The furniture  is "antique". The books are old "collectors" dreams. It is a stressful place to go with children. As a result I packed our big tent. I planned to keep my hoard out of the barn and away from disaster. My girlfriends that came with me had also been instructed to stay mostly outside. That way we could claim no knowledge of anything broken or destroyed inside the building. One of my friends brought a big van to accommodate her children and her sleeping in the back. Another friend brought a big tent also.

My niece had initially set the weekend up with some girlfriends from her school. She  OKed us crashing her teen chick weekend. We arrived in mass with teen boys, small children, dogs, and vodka . We all had dogs and I was dog sitting a spare. We beat Tory's hoard to the beach  by several hours. I had the gates up on the stairs to discourage anyone or dog who went into the house from going up into the sleeping quarters.

 We had our tents  set up. Our sleeping bags were out and I had padded the camp cots with extra sleeping bags. I am getting more use out of those camp cots than I ever thought I would. We were several hours at the beach flying kites, Riley brought his two string trick kite, before Tory finally made it down  with her group.

The teen girls took one look at the tents in the yard and promptly asked if they might sleep out in the tents instead of the barn where there would be  real beds and supervising adults in the same big room.This way the girls could stay up as late as they wanted. My girlfriend was all over sacrificing her tent and sleeping on the ground for a warm bed inside. One tent was all the girls needed so I got to keep mine. Besides, I was firm that I did not want to be inside and have to deal with the clean up of the inside of the barn on the last day.

Later that night I took one camp cot over to the fire pit as it can sit three people comfortably. The girls came over to cook  hot dogs and make smores.  I had my camp chairs set out, but I had noticed while loading them into the car that they had the odor of cat pee. I was hoping that some airing out over night at the beach might wash them a little of the odor. The breeze at the beach helped. The chairs were used and no one mentioned the odor.

The weather could not have been better on the first day. No rain, the sun shone. The breeze was just right for the boys to do the trick kite. Riley had kept his kite in good order, not losing any pieces as Trevor had. Trevor's kite hadn't lasted the first weekend he used it. You have to be meticulous with all the parts and put the kite away properly each time.

I had also brought down a three dimensional kite that had been in the garage for ever. I bought it for a party gift but never used it.  It was a sailing ship with three masts. Cheap plastic and it looked as if a mouse might have chewed the sails. That kite was given to the little boys my other friend had brought along. I was amazed when it really flew as it was just a cheap plastic. It even held up several hours before the mast snapped during a crash to the sand. Kites are well worth every penny you spend on them.

My girlfriend with the van had also brought down a bicycle built for two and a couple of little bikes. The teens took the training wheels off the little bikes and loved taking out the two seater. They even managed a trip to the beach. We ended up loading the bikes back into the van at the other end, after everyone went into the water and got wet. If you have ever ridden a bike in wet sandy clothes you know how you can chafe your legs. The teens were cold, wet, and tired by the time we crammed everyone into the cars for the short ride back to the house.

Riley wanted to show off his driving skills to these cute girls. The car was full of women. He was fine until he tried to make the turn into the driveway to the barn. You have to cross a five foot deep drainage ditch on a little culvert bridge. Riley took the turn too tightly and got the car stuck on a big rock right before entering the bridge gap. Everyone had to pile out and poor Riley had to give up the driver's seat to an adult to back the car up off the rock  before the car went tumbling into the ditch.  No one gave him a hard time but you could tell he was embarrassed. Driving is not a strong point for Riley. I think Tom needs to take him out in the Caddi for some confidence driving.

The evening by the fire is something of a blur to me. The adults had wonderful cocktails and I remember good conversations, but I indulged, so much of the evening was remembered as a lovely fire and laughter.
The next day I lay prone on my camp cot  by the morning fire, as the most comfortable position I could find, until eventually I took some pepto bismo  and found a corner away from everyone to empty my stomach of any food I had eaten for breakfast. I felt much better, but did not have quite the energy or pizazz that I might have otherwise had.

The dogs cleaned up after me, so I didn't worry about any one stumbling over my mess. Only fair, as I had been going around cleaning up after the dogs, so no one would accidentally step or roll in poop while playing in the grass. The weather turned grey on Sunday so we opted to take the tents down while it was still dry. My friends and I planned to leave that evening. The girls had gotten along so well with my boys and the other teen age daughter my girlfriend had brought along, that they asked if we would leave our children for one more night. We consented after making sure everyone would fit in the cars that would be left. It would be a tight squeeze with perhaps holding sleeping bags on laps, but it was doable.

I knew my boys would use good judgement and have fun. The girls had already tried to play spin the bottle and truth or dare the day before. My boys had raced away before the games began. The girls were forced to find another game to play. I saw everyone playing old maid later.

Riley  had hesitated about my leaving and his staying one more night, but in the end he opted to stay. I think he liked the idea that everyone wanting him to stay so badly. Originally he tried to chase my car down the road with a gaggle of girls chasing him. I drove round the block just to make sure everyone settled in OK before leaving for good. Riley did take a little down time and go into the barn to read his book, but he was back outside after his little rest.

I am told clean up took three hours. It always does. The boys were home by 7:30pm Monday night. They had had a wonderful time. Everyone had tired smiles on their faces.

SAT

Riley was sick last October when he could have taken the PSAT. He was adjusting to the new school and the move and the new germs in the area. I figured he would take the PSAT next October.
Don't want to miss taking it as there are scholarship opportunities with these tests.  Mean while, I wanted to make sure he took the SAT for practice. You can take the SAT multiple times. Riley is not the kind of guy to do plain old  practice tests. It is hard enough to get the homework done with these boys. Tom's comment was Riley is taking it like an inner city kid, no prep, no practice.

Riley tells me he likes test, though. He finds  tests enjoyable, he tells me as we drive to the school at 7:20 in the morning on a Saturday.  The harder the test the more satisfying. We will see how he feels at noon when I pick him up. Of course, he knows he will get a couple more shots at the SAT. He has also been informed that there are scholarships tied to high scores.

Riley asks me what I would do if he got a perfect score. Lots of luck son. I would be ecstatic though after I questioned if the computer broke down.  Tom tells Riley it is better to leave an answer blank than to get it wrong. I'll be curious to find out how many questions Riley leaves blank.

I sharpened four pencils and found a calculator and erasor. Riley stuck them in his shirt pocket. He is wearing an olive green plaid button down collared shirt with his  blue jeans. We have waffles for breakfast so he gets a good meal. Riley bakes a quick batch of oatmeal cookies from the batter he made up last night. I bag four cookies in a clear sandwich Ziploc and grabbed a banana for him to have a snack during the breaks. I also gave Riley three dollars so he could use the vending machines at school.

We drove into the parking lot. We are early, with 15 minutes to spare. Instructions say to be there by 7:45 am for check in. It is 7:32am.  The lot is already over a third full with parked cars. Cars are lining up to drop off students for the test. It feels like a regular school day.  Riley is not the only one taking the SAT today. It is the last scheduled test until next fall. Probably plenty of students waited until the last minute to take the test.

At 8:15 am my phone rings. Riley has left his admissions ticket on the fridge. I had given him the ticket and told him to put it in his wallet but he said it was too big for his wallet. There it  was still taped to the fridge. I leap in the car and have the ticket to him  in six minutes. It is 8:21. Riley is waiting in the parking lot for me. He looks sheepish and tells me it is not NASCAR, I didn't have to speed, but as I drive off I see him turn and run into the building.

 The test begins promptly at 8:30 am. I just wonder what took so long for Riley to figure out he needed that admission ticket. When I saw the ticket still stuck to the fridge, after dropping Riley off, and realized Riley had forgotten it, I had hoped that perhaps his picture ID and pre registration for the test would be sufficient, but these days people have to be thorough. Luckily we live close in to town.  I would not have been able to get the ticket to him in time if we had lived in the big city or further out.

Now it is all up to Riley.