I so dearly love a cottage in winter!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Easter Eve Disaster Strikes Cottage De Haven..

NOTE:  Do not read if you are sensitive to basements/water/flooding.  Carpet was killed in the making of this story.


Oh dear.  Saturday past was a lovely and sun-shining kind of day.  It has been raining for 3 months straight here at the cottage (as if we were Dorothy's house and landed in Seattle), so the sun was like a day in heaven visiting with your lost dear ones.

The day was filled with last minute Easter errands, some light yard work (because I have been looking forlornly out my windows singing sad love songs to my flower gardens these rainy days), and even an all family bike ride.

That evening I sent Sir and Madam Lu to the Man Store to get some stakes (the cottage dogs do not get the whole 'sidewalk only' rule of trampling) to stake off my new beds.  While I had some time away from my 2yr old, blond haired, leg warmer I decided to work on the 15 loads of laundry awaiting me in the basement.

We moved the little Sirs' beds out into the middle of their room so that I could finish the wallpaper removal this week.  I tore apart all of their bedding (2 quilts, 2 down comforters, lots of pillowcases).  Madam Lu got a clean bed too...and heck, while I'm at it...yes, there were 5 sets of bedding sorted on the floor in my laundry room.

A word about the Laundry Room:
The location of said room can be controversial to some.  Many prefer a main level room.  Some even utilize their laundry room as a craft room as well.   These people have children who have those 3-bag laundry sorters and they know how to use them.  Here at the Cottage, your Mistress has been extremely lax in laundry-sorting-philosophy courses.  I consider it a victory if 60% of dirty grey socks end up in a laundry basket.  The Sirs are responsible for carrying their overflowing baskets to the basement laundry room when I ask.  I mention this because, as a part of the tale, it is important to understand why your Mistress demands a laundry room in the basement...I make piles...and piles...and piles.  Darks, denims, other pants, mine which can be washed with Madam Lu's but not any of those boy-people's, the Sir E and Sir M can be combined but never cross washed with Sir's and only choicest pieces with mine or Madam Lu's.  Sir's cannot be combined with anyone else's...well, maybe the dogs.

My laundry room is in the basement, and because it is there, what I do with our dirty clothes is my beeswax and you don't have to see it when you come over, and that is how I like it....AND WHY IT MUST BE IN THE BASEMENT!

Back to the Tale:

So, I am bringing down an overflowing basket I picked up in some random room of the Cottage...turned the corner (because you turn 2 90degree corners going down the stairs, and saw....GASP....WWAATTEERR...

Yes, it is 5/6 on Easter Eve...I am wrapping up my day.  Going to paint eggs with the heirs, put their little paint covered bodies in the tub...sing silly songs...put them to bed...work on laundry, iron their Easter Best, stuff their baskets, and the Sir and I are going to giggle when we watch the Easter Bunny hide Sir E's eggs in really difficult, mean spots.  Yep.  I LOVE Easter and this one is perfect.

Except I don't anymore and it is not...when I see the standing water...well, I said "No".  It was my first word after all and always the first one I use when all else exits my brain.

3 inches.  Dead sump pump.  But I thought we had a back up?  It was flipped off.  Up until 2 a.m. trying to install the new one.  Cannot do any of the submerged laundry because my washer empties into the sump pit.  Basement in ruins.

We got up at 6 on the glorious day because Sir had to go to work.  The kids hunted eggs (those silly people could turn turds into rainbows...which we needed).  I made my delicacies and off to Grandma and Grandpa's for the day.


Now, you know we are THISCLOSE to being done with the Sir's suite.  I mean, we are down to basically painting the ceiling and the walls.  I have a long list of projects at the Cottage.  Guess where the basement remodel was on the list???  Number 357.  Yes.

After our estimates this morning here is where it stands.

The good:
We do have sump pump coverage...up to $10,000
We are hopeful that because the previous Mistress was financially blessed, and used the best quality carpet and pad, the floor reimbursement will cover tile...'cause you know I will NEVER put carpet in the Cottage.
Steamatic is here to remove all of the damaged stuff and they don't even want my help.

The bad:
The damage is at least $10,000.
Sir will want us to lay the new tile ourselves (which I respect but remember....we are immersed in OTHER projects).
He will also want to remove some walls (well, we...)
After the Great Poopereah Disaster of 2011, I will have nasty carpet up here in my family room (where we live) but fresh clean new floors in the basement (which we don't use).

Did you know our first home was 1020 sqft?
Our last home was 1500 sq ft on the main level.
The basement in the Cottage...well, just the part with carpet...is 1500 sq ft.

UUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGG-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHH

Some Pics for posterity...

We begin our descent to the basement.  The stairs are even wet from the tramping up and down.
After you make the first turn.  Here is turn #2.

You can see where the water was standing 3 inches deep 3 days ago.  Saturated pad.

Hey, did you notice...the basement is the exact same color the rest of the Cottage was when we first moved in???  Yes, Builder Brown.

Um, I'm not going to tell you sump pump water is clean, but at least it wasn't sewage!

Hey Look, it is my basement laundry room.  See my piles...these are new.  The sopping we stuff has ALL been washed.

If you look in the corner you will see the dastardly sump pit.  You cannot see the shiny new pump, but it is working...I check on it ever couple of hours!

The pad in the entire basement is soaked, but it has seeped up in random spots.

There is serious standing water under this fridge.

Yuck

What a mess.

All of it must go.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Pitty-the-Poo-Cake!!!

"Some days are diamonds...some days are rocks" I love this phrase.  It is in a Tom Petty song on the She's The One soundtrack...which is my FAVORITE Tom Petty album  (and that is saying a lot because I freaking love Tom!)



Warning: The following discussion is yucky!  Please pass by to next warning to skip the yucky....



Well, the past few days have had some major rocks flying about!!!  I told you about Heinrich and his poop-er-reah all over the house.  After spending $100 at the vet..."I have been seeing this a lot, Mistress of the Cottage, and I have no idea what is causing it, but here are some $40 pills."...we seem to have his er, um, problem under control.

After slaving away as lumberjacks yesterday, we came inside to find an explosion of poop-er-reah all over the house...again.  The dobes spent all day outside with us.  Oh. No.  Daisy!

Daisy is our 7yr old English Mastiff.  She is very old and can barely get up.  She has non cancerous tumor-masses all over her body that occasionally explode pints of blood all over the house.  She is huge.  So, when a 70lb dog has poop-er-eah, it is a nightmare...when a 130lb dog has it...there is weeping.

Did I mention that I hate poo.  I mean, I can stand the kids', but animal poo makes me gag and eventually vomit.  Really.

I spent half of spring break cleaning Heinrich's mess...luckily Sir took on the great Poo of 2011 for me.

Eventually the cottage settled down to normal.  Sir and I relaxed and caught up on episodes of "Parenthood" (OMW, Hattie is doing IT??!!)  We went to bed @ 11:30, so actually kind of an early night for your Mistress.  At 3:15a.m. I hear a strange hissing noise and realize Daisy is pacing...OH.MY.WORD.  I leap out of bed to let her out...toooooo late.  I do not need to go into graphic details about what the hissing noise was, but suffice to say it was a late and miserable night.



Warning:  This section contains shameless guilt-inducing sugar call, and friendship type bribery...



How does this lead into a story about cake????  Well, it does not...not even a little.  I am telling you though, that after all of this literal crap, I am having a MAJOR cupcake craving....even a piece of old school cake, but with lots of frosting...like I am trying to figure out how I can fit a cake run into our yard clean-up this morning...???

Unless any of you, dear friends, have some cupcakes sitting around.  You know, like freshly made, with oodles of unusual and delicious frosting on top?!  I love experimental flavors.  And if you happened to drop one by...maybe 2 so Madam Lu and Sir could share one too...I would not judge you.  Not even one bit.   Perhaps one of you dears have not had time to make any delicacies lately, I totally understand, but would LOVE to lunch with you and to have a little salad and big treat from the Bagel Station for lunch today...I am generously accepting all forms of pitty-the-poo-cake!!!!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Changes at the Cottage

Hi!

Last week was spring break.  Unfortunately, it was like 45 and raining every day.  We decided to take a last minute trip to Chicago.  We took the Amtrak Train (about a 3hr ride)

The boys on the Train.  Madam Lu sat with us for some of the time.

The rest of the time she attacked the boys!  The sirs amused themselves with books...no electronics on this trip!

It was cold in Chicago too, but when you are on vacation the temp does not matter.  Outside the Field Museum...they have a special horse exhibit, which we did not even see, come to think of it!

This is um, some famous palace in Africa...I was going to remember its name....

Just like "Rexy"" in Night at the Museum...except her name is "Sue".

This is the next day.  We went to the Museum of Science and Industry.  This is the bottom of the only WWII German sub that exists in the USA.  Sir and I saw it a few years ago when it was still outside the museum, but now it is in a basement...it is HUGE!

Madam Lu LOVED this faux-cow.  She spent forever rubbing its nose and talking to it?

OK, this looks nasty, but Sir E is milking a faux-cow....so its totally fine!

Sir E and Sir M are train engineers!

An ice-cream before we caught the late train back home!

Madam Lu and I fell asleep right away on the train...

Yes, this is how the Sirs slept.  Sir E was sweaty and took his clothes off...while Sir M was apparently frozen and buried himself under 2 coats...


Your mistress spent the rest of spring break cleaning up unmentionable's from Heinrich...who apparently caught a virus at the kennel and pooed it all over the house....repeatedly...for DAYS!

Sir was off work today...and such a lovely day...so are you dying to see what has changed at the cottage???
This tree had to come down.  It was growing on the roof, did not let any sun shine on that whole end of the house, and it was a MESS all year.

Some of my daffodils made the ultimate sacrifice, but it really is much better.

Sir with a chain saw.

This was the tiny load.  The next load is like 3x's as crazy.

So, now you can actually see this end of the house...I am still thinking of what to plant here???

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Pictorials: Sirs' Water Closet Update and Madam Lu's Birthday

As you all know, I have been working on the striped masterpiece that is the Sirs' bathroom.  I showed you pics of the hand drawn stripes last time.  We also discussed Sir L's vehemence towards tape.  So, your Mistress spent HOURS hand striping the first color...Kensington Blue...I decided I would hand paint the colors and then go back and tape before the final coat of white...thus only taping once and ensuring the exact stripes I desire.  I am such a good little compromise-r!

Imagine my dismay, when returning home from an outing I found Sir L in said room with the TAPE...oh. my. fill-in-your-favorite-expletive-or-not.  He decided to "help" and realized that it was just too hard to paint stripes without tape.  I will tell you, dear friends, that I gaffawed.  Really?  Truly?  After the...lets call it a "heated" discussion in which tape usage was basically forbidden???  Really. Truly.

So, this is the wall behind the toilet.  It is not totally done, I still have to TAPE over the colored stripes to do the final coat of white and clean everything to my exact vision.  Still, you can see some progress.  I think it will be very boy-manish and hopefully they will not outgrow this look for a LONG time (as I never want to do stripes like this again!)

Dastardly Wallpaper Update: This is what I have left.  Sir was supposed to tear down the beds so I could complete the paper last week, but somehow ended up immersed in MY bathroom project. (having a hard time letting the tape thing go) 

You can see where I tore off the top layer of paper around this closet.  I can not remove the second layer without the paper-removing-potion, and do not want to soak their beds, so...um, hopefully Sir moves the beds this week? (obviously, I'm still feeling a bit irked)

Have you ever wondered what happens to a ceiling fan when a 6yr old plays Tarzan with it?  It becomes another project Sir could have worked on instead of using the forbidden TAPE. (still slightly irritated...) 

And now on to Madam Lu's birthday cake.  2 Rounds...I think mine are 10".  I found a pattern of sorts online.

Before you judge...I have no idea why I do this every year.  My only reasoning is that some day, the kids will be grown, sitting around a camp fire late into the night, cracking up about the horrid cakes "Mom made us for every birthday".  Thus we begin Madam Lu's foray into birthday cake humiliation...The globby, stripe things have a tiny striped texture and it is supposed to look like fuzzy fur...Madam Lu LOVES kitties...oh, heck, I'm not fooling anyone...it is pretty aweful!

What is that?

Opa, who made her amazing window cornice last year, made her a kitchen this year.

And it is AMAZING!



Grandma 'Beck got her a camp chair that is an exact miniature of mine!  The perfect throne to open gifts!

A classic pink Radio Flyer tricycle.



Oma found the feather boa laying around...Madam Lu felt it really completed the outfit!


At least she knew what the cake was supposed to be...she kept meowing at it.


I added two huge tubs of chopped fresh strawberries to the cake batter, so it was edible.  With determination, she blew out both candles and after cake did some dancing.  She was delightful and entertaining for the entire party!