Kitchen Demolition

So far I have managed to check several things off of my to-do list for the house.  Today was the day.  You have no idea how stressed I was about the whole plumbing thing.  You see, the sink in the bathroom has never worked.  Or at least has never been in working condition.  Not since even before we moved into the house.  When we bought the house, we figured, "oh, no big deal, we'll just get a plumber in to fix it before the end of the month."  Well, the month stretched to the end of next month, which became the end of the year, and kept getting put off until five years later, and we are now wanting to move and only now getting around to fixing the stinkin' plumbing.

So, two days ago a plumber came over.  He strutted through the house, made several tsk-ing sounds and some snide remarks about my wonderful husband and father trying to figure out how to fix the plumbing themselves, and then said that his time and labor to fix the problem would be "hundreds of dollars".  So, my wonderful husband and father decided to go ahead and try to fix it themselves.

This effort included the help and presence of my mother, Shayce, and Kylie.  Kylie wanted to help, too.  And since Mom and Dad were supposed to be babysitting them, she got the chance.  Any time the door needed closing, she was Johnny-on-the-spot, with an exclamation of "I got it!"  And between times of closing an open door here and there she found the opportunity to divest ever shelf within reach of its items, turn the TV off and on a few hundred times, dump every board game we own out of its box, and chase Trinket a few laps around the house.  She also worked out a strategy of her very own for giving David's knees a squeeze and kiss about every ten minutes.  She was especially delighted whenever he would sit on the floor- this was in itself an open invitation for head-rubbing, ear kisses, and choke hugs around the neck from behind.  Plus, she kept tabs on where everyone was at all times- particularly me and David.  If either one of us stepped outside or into the bathroom, or pretty much anywhere out of sight, it would take long before we heard the pleading toddler siren song of "Oh Sitty [i.e. "Cristy"], where are  you?!?"  or "Oh! My David! Where my David GO?!?!?!?!!!!"

Shayce was alternately overjoyed to be at our house and in hysterics over the idea of us moving.  She has become quite attached to our cozy little home apparently.  At one point I had a quiet moment with her to talk about it, and she "I'm scared that if you move, you will move far far away and go live with the Indians!"  And no, our family is apparently not all that politically correct.

So, Dad and David got workin' on the plumbing.  Originally we thought that they would be going through the cabinet, so David and I cleared the cabinet out.  Then, they decided that they needed to tear the cabinets and counter away from the wall. So they did.  Three holes later, they decided that the worst part of the leak must be coming from behind the stove.  It was.  So, then it was time to go to Home Depot for our long list of needed supplies for pretty-fying my house.  Apparently picking out supplies at home depot takes longer than 30 minutes.  Two hours after arriving at Home Depot, the kids were both clawing at each other and wrestling to get out of the cart they had so delightedly picked out.  Dad and Mom were pretty much dead on their feet, and David and I were just getting around to picking out our paint color.  So, we let the kids down from the cart (bad idea- do not try at home....er, at the Home depot near you...) and within two minutes Kylie was hanging from a the bars on an industrial cart like a monkey.  Half a minute later, she was sprawled on the floor gathering her breath to scream.  All of this before I had a chance to tell her not to.  So, I scooped her up and she and I went out to the garden section, where I showed her how to jump in the puddles and splash.  That was the funnest part of the evening.  After a few minutes we went back inside, picked out a paint color, waited fifteen more minutes for them to try to get some butter out of it (joke...), and we were headed out to the car.

On the way home, we stopped at a little Hispanic grocery store, and got everyone a strawberry ice cream bar.  There's just something about Ice cream bars from Mexico that is sooooo good.  We went ahead and let the girls have theirs on the way out the door.  Then we got to the car and realized our mistake.  We decided to live dangerously and just strap them on into the car complete with ice cream bars and head on home.  How bad could it get, right?  When we got home, there wasn't any ice cream on the car seats, but both the girls had sugary, sticky hands and faces.  Kylie started freaking out after we got her out of the car over the stickiness.  So, I decided to just take them straight to the bathroom and let them eat their ice cream sitting in the tub. I didn't care if they bathed in it after they got back there, as long as it didn't get on the furniture, it was all good.  Both girls were delighted with the novelty of being in the tub with all their clothes still on!

Then it was time to cuddle on the couch with blankets, pop in a movie, and have some popcorn.  At least for me and the girls.  Dad and David got the honor of making another trip to Home Depot to take back the old parts that they had taken an hour and a half choosing in the first trip, and try to find different parts, since the first parts were too big.

An hour and half later, they came back home, took five minutes to try the new parts, discovered that they also would not work, and decided to call it a night.  David wanted to just call the jerky plumber back and let him fix it.

So.  Today was the day.  This morning we called the plumber, and left a message for him to call us back.  Then we called our realtor to discuss a contract, and while we were on the phone with him, he was like "Hey, if you need a plumber, I know just the guy!"  And inside, I was all "Yessss! Now I don't have to listen to the other guy's lip!"  So we called the new plumber, who was willing to come over right away, and then we called back the old plumber and told him thanks, but no thanks.

The new plumber was soooooooo nice.  And now we have a working sink in the bathroom.  And a lot of glue fumes.  But we have a working sink!  Yay!

Here are some pictures of our adventures:

Ice cream in the bathtub!

This is what my kitchen looked like once Dad and David had given up for the night.  They worked on it for over 10 hours.

Having their popcorn and watching Peter Pan- it was little intense.

After the nice plumber was finished.

David, being so happy that the plumbing is fixed!

Trinket would like everyone to know that she objects to the smell of glue.