The Q Family Blog » Our Home

Completed Homemade Door Signs

Jamie — Mon, 03 May 2010 05:01:21 +0000

I’ve been working on special door signs for Jacob and Joshua’s rooms since my time in the Tampa apartment. I had hoped to finish them before leaving – nope. Then, I wanted to get them done by Easter – nope. But this last Friday, completion and I think they look great. They’re the most detailed items that I’ve made out of plastic canvas. I think my characters and animals look really good. It was incredibly time consuming, but I am definitely pleased. Plus, I think they mounted well on the doors. It’s a great personal touch to their rooms, and I made it so I can change out the pictures and because the main characters hang, I can change them by making new ones as the boys get older.

As a bonus, Jacob seemed to like his sign when he got home from school. That made me a proud mommy.

Jacob’s Updated Room

Jamie — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 12:25:41 +0000

Since I’ve been home, I’ve going through everything. Organizing, purging, etc. Jacob and I have been updating his room to a big boy’s room, which I think I mentioned in a previous blog. We’ve done more work since then. We added a Spiderman poster and a lot more Cars stickers including a mural poster.

We also decorated his room with the crafts that we’ve done. Last weekend it was Melty Beads (Jacob prefers a rainbow pattern) and sand art.

Today I cleaned out Jacob’s room, going through and organizing his toys in his closet, boxes, and bins. I feel I did an amazing job and that his room looks awesome. I separated his stuff and part like things together, so at least for now, we can find anything!

I love it.

Out of Wood!

Joel — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 15:12:39 +0000

That’s right. With only one room to go, the installers realized they didn’t have enough wood to finish the floor. After calling the wood company, they realized they had been shorted two boxes. Everyone was very apologetic for the mix-up, none more so than the installers themselves who no doubt really wanted to finish on Friday and kept apologizing over and over again.

The wood should arrive this week and with any luck the floor will get finished before Christmas. Realistically, I’m feeling it’s not going to get done until the following week. This stinks for a few reasons – 1. I’m back to work on the 28th, so I’d need to work something out so I can make the house available for the installers (I’ll probably work from home on install day). And 2 – the last room is still carpeted and “mini hall” outside of it now has a concrete floor. I still need to use this room, so I’m constantly dirtying my feet walking through this area.

Of course in the grand scheme of things, this is a very insignificant problem. Those who know me know that I try not to let such things consume me. We’ll deal with the setback and look forward to having a finished floor in 2010.

Wood Flooring

Joel — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:05:33 +0000

After years of contemplation, we finally decided to pull the trigger on getting wood flooring in our house. We came close to doing it last year when I was diagnosed with having cat allergies (thanks to our 3 cats no doubt), but once I was able to get that under control, we decided to save our money for the time being and put the idea back on the shelf. Well, given Jamie’s new immune system and the requirements for keeping an extremely clean household during the first year post transplant, we decided NOW was the time to replace our carpet before she comes home in the next few months.

Thanks to the recommendation of a good friend, I was able to find some installers who could do the flooring this week while I’m on vacation from work.

The first plank went down on Wednesday and so far the floor is looking great. I’ve sent Jamie a few photos and thankfully she agrees. I say thankfully because I had to choose the color and type myself, something every married man is deathly afraid of. I will say this though, I’m happy Jamie is not here for this project. The house is an absolute mess. I’m actually typing this on my laptop in a corner of our kitchen while leaning up against the counter since there’s no space for a chair.

I can’t believe just how much stuff we’ve accumulated. The closets were the worst! I emptied out our bedroom yesterday morning and was taken back at the amount of stuff we have. Don’t get me started on Jake’s collection of oddities.

I’m thinking it’s time to do some spring cleaning because I don’t plan on moving all that stuff back. The installers are hoping to finish the floor today, but I don’t know if that’s going to be possible. They still have the hallway and two smaller rooms to do. It would be great if they could finish it today, though; I’m itching to move everything back and clean up this mess. Jake has been staying here with me at night, but I’ve left Joshua with my mom all week so he’s not exposed to this dusty obstacle course. I really miss that little booger!

Sorry for the poor iPhone photo quality below. I have no idea where my cameras are in this mess.

New Patio Flooring

Joel — Sun, 24 May 2009 21:50:52 +0000

So I’m sitting in our patio tending to some sizzling NY Strip Steaks on the grill when I realize I haven’t posted any pics of the new tile we recently laid out here. A few months ago, my brother-in-law offered to help me tile the patio so I decided to take him up on the offer. In total it took a Saturday, half of a Sunday, and a Monday and Wednesday night. We think it turned out great; Angel did an excellent job!

Officially, our back yard transformation is now complete. We’d like to work on the front garden area next, but those plans are on hold pending finishing new baby J’s room and repainting Jake’s.

Pool Update #8 — All Done!

Joel — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:32:25 +0000

The contractors have packed up their tools, the new landscaping has been planted, and everyone has been paid. The pool project is officially complete! I have to say, compared to our other home building projects (*cough *cough – the patio) this one was a breeze. The contractors were on time and did what they were supposed to do… ultimately delivering a very nice finished product.

Start to finish, the project took a little under 6 months to complete including the time spent obtaining the necessary permits. The pool construction itself began in December and was completed by late February – just about 3 months!

Of course we were all just itching to jump into the pool almost as soon as they filled it. Too bad the water temp wouldn’t get above 74 degrees through the following weeks.

The good news is we were finally able to test the waters over this past weekend. Well, Jake and I anyway; it was still a bit too cold for mommy. The water got up to 78 degrees, so we took advantage. Still a bit on the cool side, but not too bad so long as you remain submerged.

It’s seems to be getting warmer with each passing day, so I’m sure we’ll be making full use of it soon enough.

Pool Update #7 – Day 68

Joel — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:37:24 +0000

A lot of work has been completed since the last update. The pool has been sealed, filled with water, and according to our contractor, ready for swimming. Too bad it’s too cold to go swimming. The water is a cool 74 degrees which is a “tad bit” lower than I’d like to see before I jumping in!

Every couple of days he’s been coming by to scrub it down and check the water chemicals. Apparently, you need to take it easy with the chemicals for the first couple of weeks in order to let the sealant cure. Once that phase is complete, he can turn on the saltwater chlorinator, which is a very cool device where we add salt and it automatically generates the proper amount of chlorine for the pool. It’s supposed to have the advantages of regular chlorine, minus the hair and skin nastiness normally associated with chlorine.

Landscaping is presently in the process of going in. We live in a “Tree City“, which basically means we can’t pass inspection until we replace the landscape that was damaged due to the construction. New sod should be down this week and the rest of the landscaping should be completed shortly thereafter, so I expect our final inspection from the city should not be too far off.

By the way, the LED lighting for the pool is wicked awesome. The couple of pics below don’t really do it justice!

Pool Update #6 – Day 57

Joel — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 21:52:37 +0000

Since our last update, the kiddie fence has been installed as well as the electrical system. As far as I know, the Diamond Brite pool finish is the next step after the electic passes inspection. It shouldn’t be much too much longer.

We also obtained the services of a landscaper who came highly recommended. He’s working in tandem with pool construction folks to get our irrigation system back up and running and getting the right plants and landscape for the surrounding pool area.

This is going to look really cool when it’s done.

Pool Update #5: Day 44

Joel — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:40:35 +0000

We have a pool deck!!!

The brick was delivered earlier in the week and the sand aggregate arrived the day before the work was completed. The entire deck was completed in ONE DAY. That’s incredible to me, but I guess if it’s what you do for a living and you know what your doing, this job was probably a simple one.

You’ll notice in the photos below that the deck does not completely surround the pool. That small area was left open to comply with local zoning restrictions which do not permit “permanent” structures within 5′ of your property line. We’re trying to figure out the best use of that space and we’re currently leaning towards landscaping it was some tropical plants.

If I’m lucky, perhaps I can convince Jamie to let me put a Tiki statue in that area.

Pool Update #4 – Day 40

Joel — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:52:17 +0000

After a lul of 28 days; a combination of Jamie and I deciding on a brick and tile pattern plus the time it took to order and deliver it, work on our pool has commenced once more. Today we were surprised to come home and see the tiles and paver edging had been installed. Shouldn’t be long now before the deck goes in.

We spent a good two weeks looking through tons of tiles and bricks trying to find the right combination. It would have only been a few days if not for the discontinuation of the original tile pattern we chose. After another week and a half combing through tile samples, we finally settled on this textured blue. Due to the difficulty with visualizing a tile patter across a wall while staring at a single 6″ tile, I have to admit a tinge of pessimism as to how this was going to turn out. Fortunately, I’m pleasantly surprised and think it looks great! The blue really stands out from the pavers, which match the house color. Special thanks to Scott Decker, our pool contractor, for helping us finalize our tile and color decisions.