The 4th Tradition

We've had a tradition for the 4th, something we've done for years. This year, Abigail got to participate in the tradition. We will outfit our bicycles with whatever lights we can scrounge up: red lights from the parts bin on the back of the bike, powered by a cordless drill battery, and small flashlights duct-taped to our helmets, and head off to the Grandville fireworks display, about two miles away. Our bikes are packed with a blanket to sit on, snacks, sparklers, and whatever else we think to take along. We usually leave around 8:30pm, and claim our square of grass in the park next to Grandville Middle School, just off the bike path.

Abigail has been looking forward to this for a long time, and for this day she could hardly stand the wait. We heard the question "Is it time to go?" about a zillion times. She wanted to cut everything short so that we could get going. I think all the scurrying around and preparing things only heightens the anticipation.

We had her outfitted with a red blinker light clipped to the back of her pants, which she thought was really cool. She had to show us how it worked many times, turning it on and off and watching it blink.

When we finally claimed our spot on the grass, she wanted to play on the nearby playground for a while. The entire area was crowded and there was lots of noise from people talking, yelling, and setting off firecrackers. It didn't phase her a bit. Having spent time in several big cities in China, I can see why. Crowds are the norm.

She enjoyed her two boxes of sparklers as it began to get dark, but what she really liked were the flexible glow-sticks. These are the things you see people walking around the crowds and trying to sell for way too much money. Deb had found a box of a dozen of them for a dollar at a local store a couple weeks ago and figured they would be a good thing to head off having little girls asking for the overpriced ones on the day of the fireworks.

She soon had them around her neck, ankles, wrists, and waist. She also made sure that I had one, that Deb had one, and that Josh had one. Even after the fireworks started, she was busy rearranging the colors and sizes, making hats and bracelets. Never mind the fireworks, she had seen those before in China. This was something new.


When the fireworks ended, then it was time to move. With our blinkers on and our helmet flashlights on, we headed off down the bike trail towards home. Abigail wanted to play with her glowing bracelets, but needed to hang on to the bike to keep from falling off.

The nice thing about bikes is that we just ride past the snarl of traffic all trying to go home. We can be home and in bed before most people even make it out of the parking lot. Even so, it was nearly 11:30 when we arrived home. Abigail thought that was a hoot. Staying up way past bedtime. And she got to wear her glow sticks to bed.

We peeked in the window a little while later. She was still awake, playing with the glow sticks. I don't know how long it took her to get to sleep, but it was one of those special days when bedtime rules are set aside and the normal routine is broken up for a fun activity.

The trouble is, the next day we had an extended family get-together at a state park, and the day after that was her birthday. She's going to think that all we do around here is party.

Update from Slidell

Following is a note from the leader of David's group:

We have arrived in Slidell! We got to "blow stuff up" tonight as well since all fireworks are legal here ;-) We arrived on schedule at about 4pm and have been enjoying the fellowship already with the body at Sovereign Grace Fellowship. Sunday we will attend the a.m. service, have lunch with the congregation & then some orientation. If time goes well we are planning on a short time at the beach. Monday morning the work in this heat begins... and please DO pray for us as it is definitely hot & muggy!

Grace & peace,

Chris & the team

Slidell Bound

David is currently traveling down to Slidell, Louisiana with our church youth group where he will be helping with Hurricane Katrina construction. They will be there for a week.

After a couple months working for me rehabbing an old house, he gets to travel south and do a lot of the same stuff. Only this time it is in 95 degree heat and high humidity.

Maybe he will like painting more when he gets back.

I LOVE to Paint

"I LOVE to paint," says Abigail. And, indeed, she has been helping with quite a bit of painting lately. She also likes the wages that come with it. Spending money--a rather new concept for her.


We'll see how she feels after she has done as much painting as David. David is less enthusiastic about painting. And it's not improving with experience for him. He likes painting even less than he likes scraping. He and Josh are the lucky ones who get to paint the entire exterior of the building, first with primer, then with the final color.

So Many Colors, So Little Time

This is Deb, in her usual research position, surrounded by color swatches. Since she has the better feel for color, she gets to decide what colors to paint our rehab house. The boys have been scraping old paint for the last four weeks and are nearly done. They even spent time on it today, in 90+ degree heat. It's kind of a miserable job, but it has to be done.

David told me he would rather stand on a scaffold and scrape than paint. Now that the scraping is nearly done ... it's time to paint.

Me, I get the really fun stuff, like cutting holes in walls to fix plumbing leaks, figuring out why plugs in the kitchen don't work, and reglazing windows.

Somehow, the plumbing always sneaks in there somewhere.

Adoption Alfresco Dining

Our church's adoption/orphan/foster care ministry team blessed us with a delectable dinner tonight. Since it's been six months since we brought Abigail home, they decided it was time for us to celebrate and be doted on. Nancy came and set a beautiful table for us with fresh flowers, linens and dishes. Jamie prepared an absolutely delectable meal. Usually when you have a fine meal at a restaurant, it might be good, but it seems like there's never enough. Such was not the case tonight. It was delicious and we had plenty to eat. We loved the toasted pecans in the salad and the fresh asparagus spears. The parmesan chicken smothered with garlic butter sauce was delightful.




Yes, they were as yummy as they look!

And Abigail had the last strawberry. She enjoyed it immensely.

Precious Moments

"Abigial," I said, "wo ai ni."

"Whaa," she said, her usual response to something she doesn't understand.

"Wo ai ni," I repeated.

She looked puzzled. This lasted for about five seconds, then her face lit up and she grinned broadly.

"I love you," she exclaimed.

The change in her expression when it dawned on her was priceless. My Chinese may not have been good, but she figured it out.

Deconstruction - The Cherry on Top

One more little detail for those of you who have read my "Deconstruction" post: This house sits in a historic district, so there are strict rules for what can be done to the exterior of the building. I would have to obtain approval from the Powers That Be to stick a piece of plastic pipe through the roof and it would probably be denied because it would change the nature and character of the building. So the little cherry on top of the nice new PVC plastic plumbing stack is a two-foot section of the original iron pipe, joined in the attic and sticking through the roof in its original location, just like it has for the last 130 years or so. From the outside, it hasn't changed a bit.

Now the Powers That Be are happy, I am happy, everyone is happy.

Past Tense

Now that Abigail can speak the language adequately enough to hold a conversation, we're starting to discover things about her past. She told us last night that she had two meals a day.

In the orphanage, her hair was always kept short. We have pictures of her with a buzz cut. She said she didn't like the short hair and she wants it down to the middle of her back. So we're letting it grow out, but keeping the bangs in check. This concept of longer hair is unique and fun for her. I trimmed her bangs last night to keep them out of her eyes. After I had wet her hair, she shook her head like a dog shakes itself off and flung water all over the kitchen. She thought that was uproariously funny. This is what she looked like after the big shakeout:

Deconstruction

Why would I want to take a second-floor bathroom that looks like this...


...and allow my boys in with hammers and wrecking bars...


...to make it look like this...


...then like this...


...then like this?


Because I can?

No.

Because I want to?

No. Y'all know I hate plumbing and bathrooms are usually full of plumbing.

It's because it desperately needed it, for the following reasons:

The claw-foot bathtub had to go. Some prior owner framed it in by building a wall around it, making it look like some sort of bath-nook. His framing job was bad and his tile job was even worse. The grout was falling out and what was left was mildewed. The tub was also propped up on one end so it would drain properly. The house has settled significantly over the past 130 years or so, and the bathroom has a decided lean to it.

The floor was spongy. The prior owner covered up a problem by putting laminate floor over it. That just made the laminate floor look like it had a problem also.

The house and the plumbing have settled at different rates. The result is that the main waste stack is now at least three inches higher than it used to be relative to the rest of the house. This made the toilet lean forward at a rather precarious angle. The floor around the throne was built up slightly in an attempt to compensate for the plumbing. While that hid the pipes from showing through, it didn't do anything for the slope of the floor, or the obvious lean of the toilet.

This is one of those jobs that works like an onion. On the surface it doesn't look too bad. Peeling away one layer makes you cry and reveals another layer. Peeling away that layer makes you cry again and reveals another layer. And so on, ad infinitum.

So, let the extreme makeover begin.

It has to get worse before it gets better. Here are the steps to making it worse.

1. Remove the toilet and the sink.
2. Remove all the tile and the false wall around the claw-foot tub. This creates an enormous amount of dust and debris. The entire tub is now full of broken tile, dirt, plaster chunks, nails, and cement backer board.
3. Remove the laminate floor.
4. Observe all the moisture problems under the laminate floor.
5. Remove the rotten hardwood floor. I'm sure it was beautiful at one time. It's not beautiful now.
6. Remove portions of the subfloor to expose the plumbing. Actually, most of it was already exposed, having pushed itself through the subfloor.
7. Clean the tub out and remove the tub. I had the boys wrestle it down the stairs. They are younger and stronger than I am and need these colorful experiences. The tub was extremely heavy and the stairs extremely narrow. They are now much better for having experienced this.
8. Look at the plumbing and scratch my head. I'm either going to have to lower the plumbing or raise the floor. I vote for lowering the plumbing. Unfortunately this has other implications and eventually led to removing the entire waste stack, from the basement all the way through the roof. This affects the first floor bathroom also (not to mention every other plumbing fixture in the house). Now the first floor bathroom has large holes in the wall.
9. Rebuild the waste stack using PVC plastic pipe. It looks a lot better now. And it doesn't leak. Several of the sections of old iron pipe were split and leaking, and one broke completely in half as I was attempting to remove it. I think I made the right decision.
10. Observe how the prior owner fixed plumbing problems by joining pipe without glue. In one instance, he accounted for the difference in size between two fittings by stuffing the gaps with a plastic shopping bag. I'm sure Meijer would be interested that their bag was recycled in this manner.
11. Remove all the lath and plaster. It was in rough shape anyway. We'll start fresh with drywall.

I think I'm nearly at the point where I can start making it better. It can't get much worse than this. There's practically nothing left.

Now I just have to compensate for the slant of the house, install a new subfloor, install new plumbing for the bathtub and shower, insulate the outer wall, fix the window, modify the heating ducts, install new drywall, install new fixtures, including new tub and surround, install new finish flooring, and finally finish it off with paint.

Once this is all done, I get to do most of this over again in the bathroom downstairs.

Wanna help?