that many garden hoses are made with PVC that has lead in it (and apparently the brass fittings also have lead in them)? At least this is what I’ve just been reading… And (if you’re like us and do not put your garden hoses away when the sun is shining) if garden hoses have been exposed to the sun for long amounts of time, the lead that leaches from the hose into the water leaving the hose is higher. So glad that the hose I’ve been using to water the garden for the past 2 years has never been covered or put in the shed… so much for my organic garden? Next up for today, looking for new hoses!

As it turns out I haven’t been able to be at the computer as much as I’d hoped so the basement updates have not been happening.  So it goes, I guess.  BUT, things have been happening around here!!

Our backyard looks like a junk yard right now but we have new cement steps going down to where the new door will go.  The are a lot wider than the old ones and feel much safer.  Inside, our contractor is almost done with the framing and it’s been pretty exciting to see what the dimensions actually look like in 3D, especially since I’m not a very spatially visual person.   Our plumbing for down there is almost done and for the past two weeks we’ve been washing clothes in the basement and then dragging them upstairs to dry.  Not the most ideal situation but it feels like progress since something mechanical is actually working down there. And our water pressure is 10 times better all over the house.

Our old deck. Messy but in use.

No more deck!

The new oustide steps. At the top is where the old door was

Along with our new plumbing we decided to get a new toilet for the little bathroom and while the old toilet was out I realized I should commence with my dream of painting that space since no toilet in there would be a most convenient time.  Luckily, my brother is rather available these days to take on little bits of work so he painted the whole thing for me.  My only contribution was to sing kid’s songs for him when he said he required music while working. I don’t think he was impressed, but I was impressed with his work!  I have some other things to do in that room and then I’ll post pictures.

This week the electrician is here doing all of the new wiring for downstairs.  I’m also hoping he’ll be able to fix a few weird things upstairs like light switches that switch nothing on and outlets that don’t work.  Fun stuff like that.  We’ll be gone for a week and during that time our contractor will be ripping up the floor in our entry way to make the stairs.  It’s being well timed for when no children or dogs can fall through the gaping hole that will be created.  It will be a trip to come back and see the new entryway!

Basement before framing, hvac guys putting in the new furnace

Basement before framing

New bathroom

From left to right: bedroom, rec room, bedroom

New, bigger window

Separate from the basement, but everything seems to come at once around here, we got our driveway paved.  Long story short, our neighbor was paving his side and it didn’t really make sense to leave ours gravel and have a little drop-off at the property line right where you are getting in and out of cars.  It still looks a little landing-strip-like to me but I’m getting used to it.

New driveway

Jonah has not been impressed with the noise.  I’m hoping it’s a phase that all kids go through but he’s really into talking about how things are “loud” right now.  Not all things are loud and bad (he loves the vacuum cleaner right now and you can get him to vacuum with his headphones) but all things seem to be loud.  Luckily we have noise-canceling headphones for him for shows and they’ve really come in handy.  Plus, he’s gotten really into wearing them so it won’t be a hassle to get him to wear them when we see music!  Bonus!