Thursday, May 23, 2013

Meg vs. The Bathroom: Vanity Tragedy

I have been waiting for nearly a month for this package so I don't have to look at my stained vanity top anymore. It arrived like this.




I wanted to laugh, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Then I wanted to cry, but couldn't do that either. Now I just want to go to sleep! Just 3 kids to get down and a room full of holes to patch between me and my pillow... I'll deal with this fellow tomorrow.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Meg vs. The Garage: There is always more...

The installer came out to take official measurements of our garage so they can order our new garage door. I was hoping this would be one project that someone else would do for me, but what do you know! There is a loft area in the garage, and about half of it needs to be taken down to accommodate the new tracks and garage door opener. Add one project to the list for the week!

I am also getting a couple more quotes for exterior repairs and paint this week, so before long this place will look like a whole new house! Pictures to come...

Meg vs. the Walls: Patching

I spent the night patching all the gaps and holes in the bedroom walls created when I pulled off the wood paneling. Just me, my putty knives, a gallon of spackle, and my iPod. It is looking only very slightly better, but by tomorrow night hopefully I can start priming, and then we'll be making real progress. Our friend has a texture sprayer and is going to come help us out with that part once I have the room primed and taped and prepped. We are so lucky to have a friend who knows everything and has all the tools! I am looking forward to these projects being done so I can stop pulling all-nighters. That is just what happens with little ones to look after all day!



Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Meg vs. The Walls: Removing Wood Paneling

I did this to the front bedroom today:

Before. This doesn't quite portray the ugliness of the painted-over,
falling-off-the-wall wood paneling.

After: Yikes! It always gets worse before it gets better, right?
Right?



So before Thursday when two more girls come to see the house, we hope to patch the walls, sand everything down, do a coat of primer, spray texture on the walls, and do a second coat of primer.  Then paint and moulding... Phew! I am tired already, and I need to clean out the garage before the contractor comes to measure for the new door on Wednesday.

As I was attacking the paneling, I was thinking about how nice it would have been to have done this earlier and been able to enjoy living in the finished house. But then I thought about how busy and preoccupied I have been these last couple of weeks trying to get everything done, and I am glad that I wasn't crazy focused on the house so that I could focus on these guys, who were relegated to the tent today:



Sunday, May 19, 2013

Meg vs. The Bathroom: Mini Moulding!

Our friend came over yesterday and helped John start putting molding around the ceiling. I love it! John also spent hours scrubbing all the grout and construction mess off of the tub and floor, and I installed peel and stick vinyl tiles in the inside of the vanity. Once the molding is done (this week, most likely), we just have to wait for our countertop and cabinet doors to get here (both in the mail), and then we will be DONE! Hooray! And none too soon; we already had a potential renter come look at the place yesterday, and two more students are coming Thursday to check it out; fingers crossed we get all the rooms rented out so I can stop obsessing over that and get these projects done.


Friday, May 10, 2013

Meg vs. Babies: Cloth Diapering, four months later



I have been meaning to do a follow-up post on my blog about my experience so far for anyone who is interested, and as a friend recently asked me about how things have gone, I'll use mostly what I wrote to her:

So far the Alva diapers have been as good as I could expect. First off, I have still been using disposables overnight, in part because we still had a lot of disposables left and in part because I was wary of changing things up at night time. So I can really only speak for the daytime from experience. I also keep disposables in my diaper bag for use when we are out and about, just because it is more compact, and we had them anyway. Also, I ordered 20 but they sent me 22 diapers, but then on the two darker blue diapers the elastic on the back got loose after the first couple of washes. So it was kind of a wash there, but maybe avoid that color? I thought it was odd that it was just those two. I would have contacted the company to get them replaced, but since they were extra from what I ordered anyway, I didn't.

The Alvas have worked pretty perfectly for my 2-year old up until we started potty training this week, and really only leak if I forget to change him for too long, even with only one insert inside. As long as I remember to do it every 3 hours if I haven't noticed a stink or wet diaper before then, we are good. John even forgot to change him into a disposable one night, and even though he woke up pretty soggy it didn't get out onto the bed, so if I were to double up the inserts we might even manage night time with him. 

I have had some leaking issues with my little guy at nap time (now 7 1/2 months, started when he was about 4 months). Most of the problem comes from the wet part of the diaper making contact with his clothes and then moisture wicking out. I started rolling the top of the diaper in to keep any of the interior fabric from touching his clothes, and that has reduced the leaking significantly. I know some brands have more of the PUL waterproof fabric around the top to prevent this very thing, but I figure I am getting what I paid for. I also started doubling up my inserts pretty much all the time, putting one microfiber insert closest to the baby and a bamboo insert behind that, since the microfiber soaks up more but the bamboo is more resistant to leaking fluid back out when it is compressed. I probably don't need to, but it really doesn't create any more work for me, so I figured, why not? He has also had less leaking now that he is rolling around and doesn't always stay sleeping flat on his back. 

The cloth diapers also contain the crazy baby poop explosions much better than disposables. I have only had one time when Luke exploded out onto his clothes since we started, as opposed to at least one every other day--he likes to save it up, and explode all at once. I'm sure you wanted to know that =).

Before we potty trained our big guy, each kiddo had 10 of the diapers dedicated for him, and I washed them every other night, so they were going through no more than about or five a day (granted, that doesn't include nighttime). But I think as a newborn they would have needed 8-10 diapers per day.

I did use disposable viscose liners for my 2-year-old. You really don't need them until after baby starts solids, since the runny yellow poop will just come out in the wash. And it also depends on the baby and what they eat. Our 7-month-old doesn't really need them because his poo is of the consistency that it plops right out of the diaper and doesn't leave much mess. But that wasn't the case with our big guy, so they basically functioned as a filter to keep poo from sticking to the diaper where it is tougher to clean it off. More often than not I could just lift/dump the liner with poo into the toilet and not do any additional washing on the diaper before tossing it into the diaper pail.

Okay, I think that is pretty much everything. If anyone cares, feel free to ask any questions and I can elaborate (although I think you already know much more about my kids' poop than you ever wanted!).

Friday, May 3, 2013

Meg vs. Time: Facebook Friday

It is getting harder and harder to find things I want to repost. More proof that I should kick my Facebook habit. But here are a few gems:

1. This article:  "I Read All the Baby Sleep Books." Spot on.

2. Emily is back blogging on For the Love. If I get my act together, I will be too... Anyhow, she has lots of good things in store!


3. This is pretty awesome. (Excuse some of the language.) This guy plants gardens in the inner city.



4. The Red Cross has mobile apps to help you during emergencies. Sometime when I jump into this  millennium and get a smart phone, I will have to download them.


5. My nephew got his yellow belt!


6. So true. Except I would have to have to have the figure to wear all of those clothes...


7. Last but not least:


Now there is some wisdom. Happy Friday!