It’s done.

The painting of the house on Winthrop, that is.

Or as we like to say “The Winthrop Manor”.

Now, finally, the old girl gets to look as stately as she should have thanks to an amazing team that weren’t “just painters”; they were, in fact, an incredibly skilled team of home renovation experts. Reglazing? No problem. Electrical work? Easy. Extensive restorative carpentry due to past water damage and termite infestation that the previous owner didn’t bother to remedy? Piece of cake.

I’m so thrilled with the work done on this house. It was a big project, no, HUGE. And it was really necessary. And now my back mudroom looks just as pretty as the front of the house — which if you’ve been to my house that’s really saying a lot.
I will make a list of all the things that make hiring Dave Burkholder Inc. such a good idea:

1. 1.  The man himself is a skilled carpenter and former roofer who had worked construction some years. Loves things to be perfect, and they will be because his name is on the project. He fixed all our major carpentry issues, put up new cedar siding to match the old siding perfectly, put a new roof on the mudroom (which was in utter disrepair and needed to be replaced), and reglazed and replaced cracked and broken panes in all our windows. Essentially, he restored our 1928 Dutch Colonial AND the original windows.
2. 2.  The team thoroughly scraped the house, fixed wood trim where needed, painted carefully, and cleaned up EVERYTHING. I mean everything — they scraped and broomed my landscaping for paint chips because they knew I have an infant who is quickly becoming a toddler and there is/will be nothing she won’t put in her mouth. They even scrubbed and scraped my concrete in places where they dripped.
3. 3.  Electrical work. WHO KNEW? These guys took the amateurish electrical hackjob on the mudroom and made it nice and neat (and most likely much more adherent to code). Plus, I have a lovely new light out back that matches with my sconces up front, as opposed to a floodlight plugged into a two-dollar ceramic base.
4. 4.  Completely rehabbed my basement door, including rescreening and resurrecting the little original screen door. I thought for sure that door was a goner, so I told him to not even worry about it. His team took it apart, rescreened, repainted, retrimmed, and even took the metal hardware off the door and painted it all black. The door looks amazing. And that wasn’t even part of the contract!
5. 5.  The whole team was very polite, hard working, cleaned up every night and basically made the experience awesome. If you are looking for someone to help you with your exterior, I cannot recommend them enough.

The story on The Stubborn Concrete Steps goes a little something like this: So we have these concrete steps located at the rear of our house. I’ve never much liked them, they have terribly inconsistent rises which makes me feel artificially unbalanced or drunk (or both) whenever I walk the steps. Also, there has never been a handrail, which makes it that much more precarious for those who have legitimate balance issues NOT related to booze consumption. So, after much discussion and several design iterations, I have the solution to these wretched steps: an elegant solution that will take the form of a simple set of wooden stairs that descend gracefully (WITH a handrail) to a low platform deck that will be a walkway to the driveway AND provide extra “living space” to our previously designed concrete patio. Nice, right? Looks good on paper so far. So what’s the holdup?

This. This is the holdup.

In this photo, you see the aftermath of what 2 NOOBs (ie. Me and C) and a rental jackhammer can do. But let’s back the story up to this past Friday, when I got a spur-of-the-moment lunch invite from my friend Scott (yes, this Scott):

S: It occurs to me as a dude with the day off who isn’t going anywhere til 2ish…You want maybe to grab lunch today?

D: Would love to. We might have a problem with the concrete steps. There is siding that falls below the top of the steps, so I might have to go out there and try to chunk off the top step. Wanna come over early and help? (Hint: bring the sledge.)

I know, I’m a total bastard for turning a lunch invite around into a “Hey why don’t you come over and take a few swings at that concrete for me?” — especially since that was Scott was technically on his day off. However, I offered to compensate him with lunch AND help him out with some cleanup/mulching/landscaping at his house later that weekend…so I think we’re even (D: we’re square, aren’t we? S: Uhhhmm. My hand still hurts…). I guess when it comes down to it: If you are my friend, don’t be surprised if I enlist you in hard labor from time to time (but I always try to make it worth your while). If you are my husband, don’t be surprised if I enlist you in tasks that you’ve never done before with machinery that you have no experience with that could SERIOUSLY HURT YOU.

So that Saturday, I get a wild idea that we surely must be capable of destroying the steps ourselves. I mean, Scott made it look so easy as he pulverized the top step. Well, he made it seem easy. Oh, who am I kidding, he KILLED that step, and it wasn’t without some serious effort and careful placement of a 16-pound sledgehammer. This I consider: If that is what can be done with a sledge, then perhaps we can destroy the rest of the steps with a JACKHAMMER?

Of course! Rent a jackhammer!

I make a few calls, and soon enough we locate a Home Depot that rents out electric jackhammers. The beast of a machine is heavy. Really heavy, and unwieldy. We start to feel a little less confident that we’re going to be successful in our venture with the jackhammer, as it takes a lot of C’s effort just to hold it upright and keep it steady. However, C had decided that we weren’t going to rent this tool and not use it, so he “cowboy’d up” and positioned the jackhammer for the first round of demo.

I’ll admit, I was nervous and I wasn’t even the one running the beast. Shortly before starting the jackhammer for the first time, I heard C mutter: “What have I gotten myself into?”

You mean, what has your WIFE gotten you into.

Really. I made him do this on Father’s Day weekend. The weekend of all weekends where fathers everywhere are supposed to kick back and enjoy life and be showered with gifts of appreciation, right? What sort of sick woman am I?

I made it up to him. I baked him a cake from scratch.

So about two weeks ago, I made the trip up to see Gramma and Pawpaw on their farm. My earlier post, Part I, detailed the logistical nightmare of traveling as a “single parent” with an infant and a large dog. I can’t say I’d recommend attempting to travel like that, especially on a 90 degree day. Anyway, that was just short-term pain for what was just a pleasant weekend away from the heat and craziness of the city.

For example, instead of hearing a lawnmower at 7:30 in the morning, I heard roosters crowing. That’s a nice change.

Reese had a good time — Gramma saw to that. One of the wonderful gifts awaiting Reese when we arrived was a very nice, very large playpen. Similar to a Pack-n-Play, but bigger and roomier and with little built-in toys on the sides that kept small fry entertained. Another of the wonderful gifts for Reese was her first paddling pool, in the shape of a giant frog. From a distance, it appears as though a giant cartoon frog is eating my baby. Of course the waterbaby loved her new toy from her Gramma and Pawpaw:

Stupid power outage. Last night, during the time I was going to get caught up on my posts we lost power. Power remained out all night until 9 am the next day. By the way, I could totally tell who my fellow Clintonville neighbors were today at my client meetings because we were all sporting the “No Friggin’ Electricity Hairdo” (right, Diane? When I’m rockin’ the hairband, you know there was no styling going on that morning.)

Anyway the power went out again this afternoon, so I did what any bored parent would do. Pictures. Of course. Here is my pink hairless baby being adorable. Also my beige hairy baby with his best begging face. He really wants to go on a W-A-L-K here, but I can’t say “walk” because he’ll freak out so I have to spell it.

Also, The Great Housepainting of 2008 is wrapping up nicely. Today, the whole garage was painted. Next up will be the Deck Project of 2008… but before that we have to perform the Exorcism of the Stubborn Concrete Steps. More on that in a future post, the post where I talk about how my awesome husband made a jackhammer his bitch on Father’s Day Weekend.

Dear Reese,

You have officially been outside of my womb for as long as you were in it. Okay, okay, it’s an approximated amount of time, but STILL. Nine. Whole. Months. Isn’t it time you started paying rent?

At first, you didn’t seem too happy to be separated from your placenta. The first several weeks I seem to remember you being extraordinarily crabby, with lots of crying and bleating and screaming.

Those days are long over, and you have become such a sweetsugarpunkinpiebabygirl. For those who do not speak “googlyparent”, it simply means you have finally adjusted to life on the outside quite well, and have become such a sweet-tempered baby.

I’ll overlook the fact that recently, and I literally mean in the past 48-72 hours, you have become very mommy-needy and very aware of when I leave the room EVEN FOR JUST A MOMENT. That’s when all your good-natured sweetness dries up and you cry — but you don’t just stop at just crying, you WAIL and SCRAHHAARREEEAM until there is no breath left, then you sit there, face frozen in a crumpled grimace of anger with your mouth WIDE OPEN

and I wait…

and wait some more…

and finally, after pushing that last breath its silent bitter end, you draw in the next breath and form the most hellacious shriek ever to be uttered by a small human.

In summary, lately you seem to be attached to me and have learned to vocalize your displeasure when you discover I have left your general vicinity.

This month you’ve done some other things of great interest to us, things that herald your growth from a squirmy larvae to a squirmy semi-mobile baby.

MOBILITY: Not long after you mastered rolling from back to tummy and tummy to back, you have developed the fine skill of the creep. You scooch, mostly backward, and at quite the clip. Land speed records will be broken soon, I can feel it. It doesn’t take long for you shimmy your way into trouble. Which reminds me, now is probably the time to start child-proofing the house.

You have done all of the following things at least once this month: Pushed yourself up from your belly to a sitting position, pulled yourself up from a seated position to a standing position, and stand up while holding onto furniture. And seriously, you are THISCLOSE to crawling. You get up on your hands and knees, it’s just the locomotion you’re missing. It won’t be long now.

EATING: You like food. All kinds of food. Any food you can get your hands on. But the really cute thing you’ve been doing lately is offer ME the food you have gripped in your hot little hand. You sit there, eyes bright with the sweetest expression on your face, fist raised towards me like you want to do that new-fangled “fist bump” or “bones” or whatever the kids are calling it these days. In your fist exists a bit of mashed up sticky goop of food you’ve been holding for the better part of twenty minutes, and it’s disgusting, you offer it and of course I cannot refuse.

Also, it turns out you are a big fan of ice cream. Together we polished off a single scoop cone at Gramma and Pawpaw’s, and you just could not get enough.

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION: Girl, who taught to shake your head no? Is this something you’ve been learning from the kids at school? ‘Cause you didn’t learn it from me! The past few days you’ve been employing the INTERNATIONAL HEAD SHAKE FOR “NO”™ at dinner time, most of the time when I offer a spoon full of food and your interest in eating has diminished. But you don’t just shake your head, you shut your eyes tight AND THEN you shake your head back and forth NONONONONO.

NONONONO. Riotously funny. Maybe not in a few months when the answer to every question will be NONONONONONO.

That’s not all. You also show us how you are SOOOOO BIIIIIIIIIIG when you throw your arms up over your head, and you know how to “Give Kisses” with your little lip smacking air kisses.

The kissing, that has to be my favorite. The kisses you give and the snuggling you just started doing this week. You weren’t much of a touchy-feely snuggly baby before, so this is new behavior. The other afternoon, when you were tired of playing, you fussed for attention. So I picked you up and held you close and FOR THE FIRST TIME you nestled your head against my shoulder and hugged my neck with your arms. FOR THE FIRST TIME, you held me as close as I hold you.

Please keep doing that.

Love,
Momma

This past Friday, I rounded up Small Fry and the hound dog for a little trip up north to Gramma and Pawpaw’s place. This is probably one of the many, many lessons of new parenthood: It is generally not a great idea to travel on a 90 degree day with a large dog and a small infant BY YOURSELF. See, the logistics are against you: You can’t leave the dog in the car, even for a short time, because it’s horrible and cruel and THEY COULD EXPIRE FROM THE EXCESSIVE HEAT. Same goes for the child, they go where you go or you go to jail. The catch-22 when attempting to travel without a partner is the dreaded “Bathroom Pitstop”. You can’t bring the dog into the restroom with you like you do with the child, and inevitably a “quick trip” to the restroom takes 4 times longer when you bring a screeching, thrashing infant.

So what does one do? One holds her 20 oz coffee, bottle of water, and a can of Sprite for 4 hours. Sounds easy, right?

You’d be wrong, friend.

Anyway, I somehow managed to defy the odds and I did in fact make it to Gramma and Pawpaw’s place without major incident. And it was wonderful there: fresh country air, relaxing breezy afternoons under the huge maple trees, sitting on a true country front porch sipping lemonade and watching the scant traffic go by. I think the change of environment was great for Reese: she was simply the easiest baby all weekend long, so relaxed and easy-going. She giggled and laughed her awesome belly laugh at her Pawpaw, and she cooed and gurgled and smiled for Gramma in the rocker. And I actually got some pretty good nights of sleep (despite the overwhelming heat and humidity) with windows wide open and the sound of roosters crowing so early in the morning. It was the closest to a vacation I’ve had in nearly a year.

First things first: Resource Interactive (yeah, I’m looking at YOU, Resource!) posted a new technology blog. First real topic post (as opposed to the welcome post) is about web accessibility — in my experience as a consultant on past development teams, a much feared, possibly misunderstood (and somewhat maligned) concept by developers, project managers, and business analysts alike.

Once I actually heard “Why do we care so much about BLIND people, anyway?” uttered by a STATE employee over the course of one of my projects. Evidently it was not apparent that they worked with a blind person, and several vision-impaired individuals in their own department. I assure you, they weren’t trying to be a jerk, but they genuinely did not understand why my team put so much effort in designing, testing, and retesting each of our interfaces.

The RI article itself is pretty good, a decent overview of what developers and designers face when building a site these days, a short survey of possible impairments or barriers, as well as a few clever browser-oriented evaluation resources. However, there are some resources not cited in the post that I feel have incredible value — both as a method for automated testing, but even more so as a resource to truly understanding the experience of those with disabilities as they use internet technologies. I’ll be working on a complementary article this week addressing some of the other meaty aspects of accessibilty evaluation (it’s not just a government-mandated checklist anymore!) as well as providing a context for why accessible practices are so important in web development.
Next: Adobe Beta Versions: Anyone want to try out some beta-version Adobe Software?

• Dreamweaver Beta –> http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/dreamweavercs4/
• Fireworks Beta –> http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/fireworkscs4/
• Soundbooth –> http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/soundboothcs4/

Also: Buzzword Update: I’m pretty stoked about this one, because I’ve been using Buzzword for a while, and it would appear that our voices have been heard to export Buzzword docs as PDFs. Seems like a no-brainer as Buzzword has not been branded as an Adobe Acrobat product officially as of this weekend. To my clients and cohorts — yup, it means you’ll have to update your logins to an Adobe Id. Sorry about that.

Smoochy McKissyFace is all about the air kiss now. When I hold her close and kiss her cheek I often hear a reciprocating lip smacky noise. Melts my icy black heart into an inky black puddle every time.

See her makin’ with the smoochies.