"Can You Hear Me Now?"

One of the quirks of living in a house with 12 inch thick solid stone walls is that cell phone reception inside those walls is basically non-existent. We don’t have a landline, but our cell phones usually work fine in the (wood frame) kitchen, so this is a quirk that I typically accept with a little smile. After all, quirkiness can be one of the most endearing features of an antique home.

But quirkiness quickly degenerated into annoyance on Wednesday evening. Technically, there were already two strikes down by the time Charles picked up his cell phone. The first strike came 11 months ago, either when Charles resigned himself to the fact that if he didn’t want to have to live with dial-up internet he would have to live with Hughes Net, or perhaps (and more likely) it came shortly thereafter when Charles attempted to download a half hour episode of some sitcom and Hughes Net cut the video 27 minutes in because we had reached our daily download allowance. Strike two was Wednesday morning, when we woke up to no internet.

Strike three held off until Wednesday night. After fruitless attempts at resolving the issue himself, Charles grudgingly accepted my suggestion to call the technical support number for Hughes Net. Standing the kitchen, he looked up at me while dialing the number and said, “You know that the computer is in the stone part of the house.” Yes, I knew.

After several minutes of navigating through Hughes Net’s automated help line, Charles finally was speaking with another human being (albeit one with a pronounced foreign accent). He asked Charles which lights were lit on the modem. With determination lining the muscles of his face, Charles stepped into the dining room. His cell phone promptly beeped as it dropped the call.

Call number two ended with the same beep.

By his third call, Charles was able to answer the automated system’s series of questions before they were even asked. “Yes, no, yes, 419-672-….., no, no, technical support…. TECHNICAL SUPPORT”. And by the time he reached a third human being (albeit one with a pronounced foreign accent) Charles had accepted the futility of pitting Verizon against the Einsel House’s stone walls. So the cell phone remained in the kitchen for the next twenty minutes while Charles traipsed back and forth – kitchen to computer to kitchen to computer – following in vain the various suggestions put forth by Hughes Net’s technical support. Our internet was still not working when Charles finally, and of his own volition, ended the call. Hughes Net is sending a technician to the house to resolve the problem. In the meantime we’ll be without internet service at home for 7-10 days.

It's going to be a long week for my husband.

Grumpy

I'm going to spend this post whining.  I'm apparently also going to spend this post being blunt.

Last Wednesday
5:00pm - With trick-or-treating only 24 hours away, I settle in at the dining room table to make Neil the ghost costume he requested.  I've got white sheets, scissors and some thread.  How difficult can a ghost costume be?

8:00pm - Very difficult.  Thoroughly frustrated, I drive into Walmart and come home with one of the last Super Mario Bros. "Mario" costumes left in the store. 

(Highlights from the three hours in between include Neil posing in a perfect billowy ghost costume followed by Neil walking smack into a wall in our dining room because the eye holes in said perfect billowy ghost costume kept shifting so he could not see where he was going.  Followed by me deciding that instead of two small holes, I would cut one big hole for Neil to see out of.  Followed by Neil posing in a perfect billowy Muslim hijab head covering.  Not what I was going for.  Followed by me deciding that I would put two eye holes in the pillow case and hope that would stay in place better than a whole loose sheet.  Followed by Neil posing in a perfect KKK costume.  Definately not what I was going for.  Followed by the trip to Walmart.)

9:00pm - Neil (never one to like change) announces he doesn't like Mario and isn't going to wear any costume.

Last Thursday
4:00pm - At my aunt's house for a hair cut, Neil announces he does not like Mario and isn't going to wear any costume.

4:30pm - Neil does not like Mario and isn't going to wear any costume.

4:45pm - Neil does not like Mario and isn't going to wear any costume.

5:00pm - Other kids (in costume) start appearing on the sidewalks outside my aunt's house, empty plastic pumpkins and pillowcases in hand.

5:05pm - Neil decides Mario might not be so bad.

5:15-6:45pm - A rather enjoyable, if somewhat cold, hour and a half follows.

7:30pm - Finally back at the EH, Charles and I begin packing for a weekend camping trip. 

Last Friday
7:45am - Frantic activity at the Einsel House.  Last minute packing for the camping trip.  Costumes into bookbags for the kids' school Halloween parties.  Packing a lunch for Cecilia's fall harvest day field trip.  More last minute packing for camping trip.  Everyone is at least 10 minutes late leaving the house.

2:00pm - Aunt Flo decides to join me for the weekend.  (I debated including this detail here, but you know what, this little bit definately fits into a  post titled "Grumpy".)

4:15pm - Meet family friend Adam and all pile into the van to begin the drive down to Lake Hope State Park.

6:00pm on a Friday night - not the best time to be in Columbus attempting to merge from Route 23 onto Route 270

6:20pm on a Friday night - still not a good time to be in Columbus attempting to merge from Route 23 onto Route 270

8:00pm - winding our way south somewhere in Vinton County, Neil announces "I need to use the restroom."

8:05pm - Neil: "I really need to use the potty."

8:10pm - Neil: "I REALLY need to go potty!"

8:12pm - Neil: "I CAN'T WAIT!!!"

8:13pm - Charles pulls off onto some steep stone road.  The three passengers of the van who are able to pee standing up exit the van and line up on the side of the road.

8:15pm - We pull into the drive for Lake Hope State Park and locate Cabin #14.  We unload the van and all go straight to bed.

Last Saturday
1:15am - I wake up.  With a stomach flu. 

9:00am - Avoiding me like the plague, everyone else leaves the cabin to enjoy Lake Hope's ROAR Day activies (ROAR stands for Rural Ohio Appalachia Revisited).

10:00am - Cecilia is dropped off back at Cabin #14.  With the stomach flu.

Mid Afternoon - Charles reappears at Cabin #14.  With the stomach flu.

Thanks to my parents and Adam, Neil is able to enjoy the ROAR activities and has a very busy and full day. 

Last Sunday
8:00am - I wake up feeling weak and a bit shaky, but no longer nauseous.  Cecilia wakes up chipper and joins Neil for a game of Jr. Monopoly.  Charles wakes up feeling weak, a bit shaky and still nauseous. 

9:30am - Since Charles clearly isn't up to any hiking, my dad and he leave to head back north.  The rest of us finish packing up the cabin and take off for Rock House State Park.  The kids have a blast hiking and crawling around inside Rock House.

8:00pm - Finally all back at the Einsel House, I do some basic unpacking but the house is still very disheveled at lights out.

Monday
6:10am - My nose feels cold as I hit the snooze button on my alarm clock.  I snuggle down under the covers thinking how good it is to be home. 

6:10-6:40am - ...I hit snooze a few more times...

6:45am - Finally downstairs, I notice Cecilia is shivering when she gives me a hug.  Hmmm.  I walk over to the thermostat.  It's set at 68 degrees.  The house is 59 degrees.  Damn.

9:00am - I'm half an hour late getting to work and the house is still mostly trashed, but a technician from the company that installed the furnace is supposed to stop by sometime during the day to look at the furnace.  The furnace they installed barely seven months ago.  (Just how much abuse could the thing have taken between the months of April-October anyway?)

2:00pm - Furnace tech calls.  Some gas valve is the problem, he'll get a replacement and install it tomorrow.  In the meantime he overrides the thermostat so the heat pump will continue running despite the cooler-than-a-heat-pump-prefers temperatures. 

5:00pm - My dad leaves a message on my voicemail telling me we're in the dog house for giving he and my mom the stomach flu.

7:00pm - I call my parents to apologize about the flu.  Mom sounds rough.  She tells me family friend Adam now has the flu too.

10:00pm - Kids in bed and the house 1/2 put back together the heat pump kicks in.  LOUDLY.  No wonder they don't suggest you run the thing in temperatures below freezing.

Tuesday
6:10am - Noting with relief that my nose is not cold to the touch, I hit the snooze button on my alarm clock.  I snuggle down under the covers thinking how good it is to be home.

6:10-6:40am - ...I hit snooze a few more times...

7:45am - It's school picture day, so the morning has been another frantic one, but Charles and the kids are out the door on time.  I'm heading through the house one last time to turn off lights when I stop suddenly in the dining room, staring in disbelief at the rug underneath the table.  Apparently Tiny the Cat has the stomach flu too.

8:50am - I'm 20 minutes late getting to work and the house is still 1/2 trashed.  What remains of the four puddles of diarrhea on the dining room rug are soaking under wet rags.  Larger dry rags are shoved under the rug to protect the newly refinished hardwood floor underneath.  I'm beyond caring what the furnace tech will think when he comes to repair the furnace.

2:00pm - The furnace tech calls to tell me the wrong part was shipped for our furnace and they won't get the correct part until tomorrow.  He hopes the heat pump is keeping up in these cooler temps.

5:30pm - I eat two chocolate fudge poptarts for supper while shopping on-line for a new dining room rug.  Stupid rugs are expensive.

6:00-8:00pm - I derive a perhaps undue amount of pleasure from the writing of this post.

But I really should stop now and finish cleaning up the mess in my dining room...

Sunrise, Sunset

....swiftly flow the days....

Working Weekend

As I worked on the house yesterday it occurred to me that there was a blessing in not closing on the EH until October. Namely, it was OCTOBER. As in, not July or August. We worked our tails off last fall, but at least we weren't doing it in 90+ degree weather.

But read that first paragraph again. Did you catch it? Not the "hind-sight is 20/20" revelation. Before that.

....I worked on the house yesterday...... (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

As this blog shows, during the months of June and July I was completely lacking motivation to do any work on the house. Actually, that feels like an understatement. "Lacking motivation" sounds apathetic. The reality was during the months of June and July I loathed the idea of picking up a scraper, sand paper or paint brush. It was much nicer to come home after work, ignore the unfinished areas, the piles of tools and unpacked belongings and instead make real dinners for the family, fold (and put away!) laundry, read a chapter from Anne of Green Gables to the kids, and have an hour or so to myself each night.

But it's August now - and I've spent the last two Saturdays working on the house from sun-up to sun-down - and (I think I better whisper this)................I've been enjoying it again. :)

I snapped these pictures this morning. Last weekend I yanked all the weeds growing along the sidewalks in front of the house, but I left this morning glory that has grown up the old gate in front of the house:

Most of my attention last weekend and this has been focused on two windows on the back of the house. These are the last windows that needed to be scraped, repaired, primed and painted. At left is a picture of the window I worked on yesterday.

This window presented a couple of challenges. First we apparently have a hive of bees living in the stone wall between these two windows and the main entrance is between the wood window frame and the stone wall just below the upper right corner of this window. I managed to plug the hole with caulk saver and some caulk, but that didn't stop the bees from milling about, trying to get back into their home. Amazingly I did not get stung, but Charles (who mowed the lawn yesterday) had plenty of opportunity to laugh at my antics, scampering up and down from the window repeatedly throughout the day as the buzzing around me waxed and waned.

Which brings me to the second challenge presented by this window - getting away from any overzealous bee was not as simple as taking a few steps down a ladder. That's because this window is located over the Bilco basement walk-out door. After a few tries at leaning precariously over the Bilco door I rigged some makeshift scaffolding, namely a board between two ladders. Below is a picture of yours truly at work scraping. The window to my right (by the Little Giant ladder) was the focus of my attention last week.

As I write this morning the window is primed and caulked and waiting for paint, which is what is in the plans for after church today.

By the time I finished the sun was setting, and I took the camera with me on a walk around the pasture. Here's one last picture for this post. It's a familiar shot of the house, this time in the glow of a setting sun:

Enjoying the Views

We've been living here almost a month now, and I still am in awe at the view we have of every sunrise.

And every sunset.

Even at her grumpiest, Mother Nature puts on a good show out here.

Are We There Yet?

I was awakened at one o’clock this morning to the sound of my four year old daughter vomiting onto the wood floor of the little nook at the top of the Einsel House stairs. In an instant I was out of bed, into the hall, turn on the light, and oh no – she’s obviously not finished. Scanning my environment, I shoved aside two cardboard boxes of still packed clothes and dashed into her unfinished room. I got the five gallon bucket (half full of sawdust and various scraps of wood) to her just in time for round two.

Cecilia, bless her heart, was a trooper as I fumbled through yet unpacked boxes looking for cleaning supplies, fresh blankets and pajamas. Charles got home from practice for his latest theater role (Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls) just in time to help by getting Celia settled on a sleeping bag on the living room floor (we don’t have couches yet) while I took a bucket of hot soapy water up to address the wood floor at the top of the stairs. Cecilia, her brother and her father all slept soundly through the rest of the night. Their mother and wife, however, was back up from about 4am to 6am due to a classic summertime thunderstorm. The lightning show through the living room's uncurtained windows was quite impressive, at times almost beautiful. At one point the power went out. I had just enough time to realize that I have no idea where our flashlights are before the lamp beside me blinked back on.

The night just past was in many ways a microcosm of the days preceding it. Within the last two weeks we've dealt with the somewhat predictable exhaustion and overwhelmed-ness of being nearly 9 months into a renovation, coupled with a refinance closing and moving into a house that is still about 20% under construction. All while passing a stomach bug from one family member to another.

Thus the lack of posts here.

It's not that the past few weeks have been all that bad, just that they've been tiring. But in the midst of it all we closed on the Einsel House's refinance, dropping our monthly payment to just under 40% of what it was on the HELOC (and locking in a fixed interest rate of 4.875%). We also spent Father's Day moving into the house. It will take awhile to get all the boxes empty, but it gives me a little thrill to get reacquainted with all the things we haven't seen in over a year - the quilt from our bed, all my kitchen dishes and baking supplies, Neil's antique dresser that I bought at auction just before we sold our previous home.

I can't promise I'll be back up to speed here at the blog immediately. At the moment I'm still rather tired (happy, but a tired happy), and it appears we are not finished with that stomach bug quite yet, either. Finally there's the small complication of not having any internet connection (or even a computer for that matter) at the Einsel House. Charles is working on getting internet at the house, and I'm sure the passage of time will restore health and energy. So please be patient and trust that I will be back when I'm able. Because I do look forward to sharing pictures of a lived-in Einsel House. : )