Yes, I know it's no longer August - not by a long shot and most of this is about things we did in July... but the biggest change in the last few months is the arrival of our son Trei. He was born July 26th. Everybody always says to "enjoy your sleep while you can"; what they fail to mention is that you will be living under a dictator that completely ignores the Geneva convention. "Oh, thought you might sleep, well I'm going to torture you with screaming for the next 36 hours, with only a few moments of quiet."
Daniela and I (mostly Daniela) managed to get the entire nursery floor laid before Trei was born. Daniela was very meticulous in choosing which boards to put where - she only only had a single 5 gallon bucket of cut offs at the end. (NO KENNY - It was a single 2 1/2 QUART bucket.) Because the floor was "reclaimed" it needed lots of sanding to get it flat; Daniela made 18 passes with 20 grit sandpaper - each one taking 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours - to get it flat.
But just to prove how much he will be in control of our live over the future, Trei decided that we shouldn't be able to finish sanding the floor before he was born. We had only 3 more grits to go - a little over a single days work; but he broke Daniela's water and that was it for the sanding. The floor is still waiting for those last 3 grits - hopefully I'll be able to get to them sometime next month.
Dad and I started working on the nursery furniture in July. We're making 3 cubbie/dressers that have storage for 6 cloth baskets each (two will be put back to back for a changing table) and a floor bed instead of a crib. The floor bed is just a toddler bed, but instead of being two feet off the ground is only a few inches, so when Trie rolls off he just rolls onto the floor - plus we no longer have to worry about escapes that involve jumping from great heights.
We were almost able to finish the floor bed - it needs a bit more sanding, the bed slats and hardware. We were able to get about 1/4 of the dressers complete - the two sides and the shelves. Lots more left to do there, but I've not had a chance to get out to the garage.
Around the house the only major accomplishment was installing the tanks. The company finally shipped them to a local shipping depot and I went and picked them up July 14th. That night I drilled all the holes for the fittings and installed them in the basement - they were a lot easier to move around as they were only 30" in diameter. I didn't fully trust them so I only let them fill part way before going to bed. The next day I let them fill completely and they've been working great ever since.
We've since had the softener installed; though it's looking like I may need to rework the filter setup; the tank oxidizes the water way more than we expected so lots of the iron and manganese precipitate out, which results in yellowish water; and the 5 micron filter isn't removing all the particulate. Basically what I need to do is switch from the single stage 5 micron filter into a 3 stage filter that can go down to 0.5 micron. Though this will definitely require some rework (boo) and more expense (double boo).
