Nursery-style detox

So I'm detoxing the house.

No, not 'nursery' as in baby's room, but as in 'place where there is an overage of plants' and that is now a potentially accurate description of my house.  But seriously, have you read any of this stuff about the chemicals and toxins in the air and how certain plants can remove them?  You are well aware that i'm a big fan of the magical chelating powers of cilantro -so it shouldn't be a surprise that I have a similar fervor now I have essentially found a cilantro for the house and the air we breathe.  Ahhh...

From another perspective, it might seem that I went a bit overboard on buying plants for the house... but whoever has that view probably has been inhaling too much benzene, formaldehyde or trichloroethylene... (or worse!) ewww.  I will readily admit that the 6 large plants and 3 massive hanging baskets (not to mention an assortment of smaller window sill type plants) drew some attention as I loaded up my car.

One last little heel clicking tidbit: NASA research (more here)which studied air quality as maintained in closed environments (such as space stations or - my home) shows that 87% of air toxins can be removed by plants within 24 hours.  Impressive. 

These little plants are earning their keep.  And I love hard workers.  I'll do my best to make them comfy, too.

Humor with a Pregnant Perspective

Plowing through the 2nd trimester-- can't believe we are about to turn the corner in to the 3rd. Not much to report besides continued growth and constant activity in the belly. I no longer have to lay down or lift my shirt to see the little fella kick, flip and punch away... walking around, sitting down, wearing a shirt or thin sweater: there it is - The alien baby in my tummy pretending he is John Bonham.


With all else being a bit status quo: I offer my list of
Surprising (and mildly inappropriate) Things People Say to Pregnant Women. This is fun for me because as these happen, I just generally nod and go along with it - but on the inside, I'm shouting: are you kidding me? Seriously, people??

Without further ado, here we go:

1) In reaction to my mentioning that I can't/won't be carrying furniture upstairs (absolutely no other mention of physical activity): "Seriously? Um, you'd better stay active, otherwise you may not make it through labor. I mean, are you should at least be doing pilates??" (note: this person was not speaking from personal experience)

...Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence that I 'may not make it through labor.' wow.

2) The well-meaning, co-worker: "I mean, I don't know how you women do it, knowing that in eight months, then seven months, then six months, and until the end... KNOWING you are going to endure the most excruciating pain of your entire life."

Yes, thanks for the reminder. How uplifting. =)

3) I'm going to not recount the horrible pregnancy stories here, i'll just group them into a category (heard two over the past few weeks). But in general, you don't walk up to a bride and groom and start telling a story of a heart-wrenching divorce so what makes people feel the compelled to tell a pregnant woman a friend-of-a-friend's story of some one they know who had complications and baby died at 24 or 32 weeks? mind boggling. And the trick here is, if I respond with that I'm really thinking ("you a-hole, what is wrong with you to tell me those horrific details and tell that story that really was unnecessary!?"), I sound like a hormonal pregnant lady who is overly emotional and out of line. Now, if this story is a friend or current, then by all means, i'm not asking for censorship here - just hoping to pass on the sensationalism of someone telling the awful story of someone they don't even know (nor are they sure of the exact details). Yes, there are lots of sad stories out there - but again... let's remember the bride and groom and try to keep things in perspective.



Okay - that's all i have for now. Eagerly awaiting your feedback on stories you've heard. =)

Mental Juggling, Medicine Cabinets and Dominoes

The classic riddle of the remodeling-sphinx: How can something seemingly as simple as a medicine cabinet possibly consumer so much of one's time?


Of the 250 decisions (that might be generous on the low side... let's call these 'product decisions') that must be made for the bathroom alone, I am currently spinning my wheels on the medicine cabinet. Should be fun and quick, right? Well, it was.... the first time. Maybe even the second time. I had the the size was just right, the price well shopped and down to the SKU - ready to purchase when it was closer to install time (no need to have additional stuff laying around up there...)

So there we go last weekend to pick up the medicine cabinet (we need it now not to install, but so extra blocking can be done prior to the sheet rock being installed). Just before heading out the door - thinking I'm being cautious... i decide to pop upstairs and measure in between the studs... just in case. Whew, I think: one was 14.5 and the other 14.25. The difference of a quarter inch could have really thrown me off here. but the dimensions of the in-the-wall part is 14'' in width so all clear. WOOHOO! ---wait for it--- Hmmm.... that PVC pipe is running straight up the middle of the studs where the cabinet is to be. yep. Murphy strikes again.


After all my pondering of size, shape and style - then shopping pricing and picking out the PERFECT medicine cabinet... it's no good. it would have looked lovely over one sink and protruded from the wall over the other. Back to square one. But actually, the domino effect kicks in, because we needed to finalize what type of lighting would go over the sinks before the electrician could finish the rough in... so we bought the lights already. Well, those were selected on the premise that of the inset medicine cabinet would be fairly flush to the wall.


Given this new discovery that I need to pick out a new medicine cabinet that will be wall-mounted, not recessed, it will not protrude further from the wall than originally thought. Meaning the lights won't be ideal any more, they either need to come out further from the wall or be side mounted... but we've already passed electrical inspection, so i don't want to redo any electrical wiring and have that set-back.... so stuck with finding a new light fixture with the parameters we already set for the last lights, not to mention staying within the metal finish selected when we got the clawfoot tub feet & hardware (faucet, etc) and minding the available selections for the time period of the original construction of the house.


By and by, I have since realized that I need to consider/select the sink size and placement to determine where the exactly the blocking* will need to be, once the cabinet (and corresponding dimensions) have been determined.


While this might seem an easy task... it turns out not to be. And I'm still on the medicine cabinet part. And now it's not time for casually thinking it over and refining my selections over time.... chop chop, sister! this will now hold up progress and the guy is coming to finish up minor framing changes early next week.


So, need to go ahead and get the sinks. Thankfully, my sink selection will still work, but I will need to go to two different places to get them because everyone, it seems, is running low on stock of that item.


But picking up the sink won't really help all that much, other than crossing it off the list because I will have to just visualize the combo since we are.......... still in studs.


*in case you aren't familiar, blocking is securing a 2x4 between to vertical studs to carry weight of a heavy item on a wall: e.g. medicine cabinet, TV or recessed shelf. done correctly, it should be connected at the center of the new 2x4.


also: did I mention that we failed our mechanical inspection? well, we failed our mechanical inspection. not because of something with the new system... and not because of something functionally wrong with existing system... but because the vent pipe is too long in one direction and they want it to go straight up. Yep. A minor ~$600 'fix' for something not even involved in our current renovation. and the best part: the vent pipe will pop through the roof on the front part of the house.

Rhetorical Questions

Just because you know something might happen doesn't mean you loose the option to be disappointed should it end up happening.

For example: it might rain today-or any day-, but you chi'ed you're hair this morning and were looking forward to dinner plans. When it does rain and you get caught in it, your hair gets messed up, you're gonna new sad. If someone flippantly told you, "well, the weatherman said there was a 10% chance of rain this week" make you feel better, or (after you thought about it for a minute) make you want to punch them in the mouth?

Similarly, if your scoop of ice cream fell off your cone and onto the ground. Does a cool, "yeah, it happens" help.

Or if your flight was cancelled, does "hmmm... Maybe if you checked in a little earlier, it wouldn't have happened that way..." make you feel any better, or possibly just enrage you a bit? There is no connection between the two things! It is still upsetting that your flight was cancelled, your plans have now been forced to change, and you are disappointed.

I understand that human nature makes us instinctively want to answer the question "why" when something bad happens. But what makes us lose sight of how to me (even coordially) sympathetic?

I'm typing in this tiny little screen here, and not sure if this post makes my point; so I'll try one last analogy. This one a bit darker...

I believe the saying goes: "only two things in life are certain: death and taxes". So we know it could (will) happen eventually to all of us, surely no one would find it acceptable (let alone appropriate or compassionate) to say to a distraught young widower, "well, it happens sometime. Do you think it was something you did?"

Sun April 4