Bricks and Sticks

Yes, it's that time of year again. Only this year we're doing it "small town". "Small town" meaning that we don't have anything better to do than to practice four times a week and play in tournaments all weekend. Practice has been starting at 7:00 and going well past 9:00 at night. Suddenly, I've lost all my enthusiasm for baseball.

Today was the first time I actually got to see him play with his new team, because I can't keep the Littles out that late. They lost by one point in a very close game. He got a hit, but it was caught for an out. It was still progress, as the coach hit him the other day while practicing batting and now he's scared of the ball. At the top of every inning, they would circle up, put their hands in and yell "ONE TWO THREE! ******!" I turned to Charlie and said "What are they saying?" He said "One two three, sticks! Sticks? You know, batting? Sticks?" I guess. This is the first time we've played on the same fields where girls are also playing. Those girls talk some smack. ..


Hey! YOU! Batter! SWING!



The house is coming along. So much so that it's hard to keep up with it all. We've decided to finish out the bonus room. So we've now got three air conditioning units, the electricians had to come out again to wire it for lights and electrical outlets. The plumbers were here all week and everytime I go in, someone asks me a question I'm not prepared to answer, like "Where do you want the doorbell chime?" or "Were do you want the phone to go in the kitchen." Then there was this whole thing with the master shower. The Builder showed the shower with two shower heads one on each wall. Well, evidently we were supposed to choose one location, but we thought that we were going to have a super-duper two headed shower. So when he informed us that it was supposed to be one or the other, I thought, "Oh well, easy come easy go." but not Charlie. No! "He showed us two shower heads and you bought two trim kits and WE'RE HAVING TWO SHOWER HEADS, CAUSE THAT'S WHAT HE SAID!" He's had a lot of those kinds of fits this week, all the stress of me making him play Bad Cop to my Good Cop. So when he went off on the shower, I said "I'll call him and tell him." So I did, and he said NO PROBLEM. And all was well in the world. Right up until the day we went over and the plumbers said "By the way, which wall do you want the shower heads on." And we went back there, Me, Charlie, Calvin and Fred and the two plumbers, one hanging out of the ceiling, the other standing in the bathtub, and Charlie steps into the shower and says, "Okay, if I'm standing here, then where are you gonna want to be standing?" I turned three shades of red (I just turned two shades of red writing this story down), lot's of giggling and laughing ensued I mumbled "Whatever you think." and got the heck out of there as fast as I could.

It's expedient. It saves water. (or at least it did until we installed a second shower head) And that's all I have to say about that.

(See the thing they did by putting the knobs right beside each other. I was thinking they had to go on the same wall as the shower head. I'm a totally IN the Box kind of thinker. I was totally impressed by that.)

Yesterday late in the day they started bricking the house! We went out twice yesterday, and we've already been out twice today.

They have started putting in all the ductwork. The whole house is full of it. We met with the cabinet maker and I had to make several more on the spot decisions. After I got home I had time to think about it and have changed my mind on one or two things and I've since changed my mind about the location of the phone in the kitchen. I've learned I'm not a decisive person at all, and unless I can SEE what you're talking about, I can't picture what your saying. We've had a whole caucus about the fireplace and what it will look like. Despited the fact that Calvin sent me a website that had over 200 pictures of fireplaces, I'm still not altogether sure about what I want.



Not that I'm complaining, it's a good problem to have. But stressful, nevertheless.
Next week I'm looking forward to seeing the brick on the front of the house and they are supposed to begin insulation. That is going to be really interesting. We're using a product call Rockwool, that they shoot into the wall after putting a mesh barrier up. I also get to go look at tile next week. We went over and looked at the granite choices and Charlie and I don't agree on a color. Shocker, huh?