Waiting Again

We are still waiting for our notarized home study and we haven't heard from our social worker regarding the completion date. It shouldn't take very long since it is basically an update. I'm going to have to e-mail her because we have to have everything mailed into Atlanta BEFORE April 10, 2009. That is now about 12 days away.

We are heading to our house to sweep up more sheet rock dust, saw dust, and water. We had a major heavy rain late Wednesday night and into Thursday morning. Water is all in the basement. I think it covered the whole floor at one point. Today we have to sweep it out. Our vinyl guy is supposed to work next week to get the gutters up. According to Tide Guy, that should help with drainage and keep our basement more dry. When we get our deck in the back that should help. Leveling out the front yard and adding grass will help more with the front yard.

In national news, gas prices are on the rise again. The price per gallon has gone up about 20 cents in a week. It is now about $1.99. Just in time for summer. Unemployment is still a staggering high, but the stock market seems to be gaining it's footing a little bit.

We are very ready for spring and warm weather!

Tide Gal and Tide Guy

Home Study is Complete

Our 2nd home study is complete. Our last forms were mailed in Monday, March 22, 2009. Now, we wait for the social worker to complete her work and send us a notarized copy. Once we receive that, we mail that along with a few other forms to Atlanta and we are done. We only have to wait for the fingerprinting appointment. Nice and easy.

Our builders have been able to work a little more on our crown molding and trim. It looks great. Still no solution on the flashing on the roof. I think we were just overwhelmed with all the house decisions and home study we just put that on the back burner.

Another Form Mailed

I picked up our medical statements from the doctor yesterday and delivered the forms to the post office myself. Another check mark. This weekend, we will complete the financial statement and our taxes. Those be in the mail Monday morning.

We are also working at the house this weekend. Well, Tide Guy is while I recover from a really bad cold. I need to shop vac more sheet rock dust, but probably won't since I can't really breathe right now. Adding the dust to my respiratory system could not be too smart.

That is it for today.

Tide Gal & Tide Guy

It's Over!

We are done with the visit. She swept in and out within 35 minutes. We spent 3 full nights scrubbing, vacuuming, straightening, moving, dusting, wiping, etc and she never left the one room she walked in first. Man. So much wasted cleaning. Asked a few questions, got the check, and whoosh, she was gone.

To celebrate, I went shopping and Tide Guy went to the new house to pick up nails and bricks. We are such party animals.

Now, we only need to finshing a few forms and get the completed form from the doctor. No big deal. Once completed, we will get an appointment for fingerprinting and we'll be done.

Glad today is over!

Tide Gal

Home Study today!

Our homestudy review is in 1 hour and 45 minutes!! Ugh.

Good news: I made 5 copies each of our driver's license, marriage license, passports, and birth certificates. I will have these on hand when I need them again in 18 months for our next review! I'll be ready and more organized then!!

Bad news: Last night we thought we had lost our 797. Then, later thought we found it. Then!! Just now I realized it was NOT our 797. It was the letter we received for our fingerprinting appointment in 2007!! Oh, boy. This is not good. Realizing we can't find this extremely important NECESSARY form just before our homestudy is making my blood pressure go up....fast!

Wish us luck!
Tide Gal & Tide Guy

Our Homestudy

We are knee deep in our homestudy update. Our reference letters have all been mailed to our family and friends and some have already returned them to our agency. We have submitted over half of our paperwork and Tide Guy did his medical this morning. I will have my medical updated tomorrow. We are slowly getting it all done. Yesterday, Tide Guy called our agency to set up our appointment and we are scheduled for Thursday at 2:00. Yikes. That gave us three nights to clean. And, boy, do we need to clean a lot. Last night we got the majority of the hard stuff done.

I just realized I missed the 16th month anniversary of our waiting on March 6, 2009. Yeah. Whoopee....

Our builder did some trim work around some windows and walls yesterday. It is fancy and looks great! Too bad the rain has stopped. When it is pretty, he goes to another house and works outside. When it is raining, we get him inside. We need rain! Lots of slow, day consuming rain!

Have a good St. Patrick's Day...Happy Green!

Tide Gal and Tide Guy

Trimmings!

Our builder put up some trim and crown in the upstairs bedroom for us to look at yesterday. We decided we love it and he is to start all the windows and crown in the upstairs bedrooms. We are going to use this on all of the windows upstairs and probably some downstairs. I think today he is going to put up some around a door for us to check.

Moving on........................finally.

Bigger Problems Than Stucco Color

Well, the stucco has been redone and the roofers have returned and finished their job. Result? Well, I still don't know how the stucco looks. When the roofers finished the shingles on top of the front porch, which is just below the bricked wall with the foyer window, they finished the job by putting up the flashing to prevent leaks. The flashing is just that...flashing. It is shiny, shiny metal that runs across the front of the house like a streak. When I went to see the completed product all I saw was something shiny. Hence the reason I haven't decided how the stucco looks. I can't see the stucco for the flashing.

Imagine our surprise when we realized it was also done around the "roof" of the mudroom door and all along the back covering, too. Ugh. Great.

We are not happy with the results. At all. Basically, it looks redneck and unfinished. Tide Guy has contact the builder and roofer to try to get another solution. We do have a few options like pulling it up and installing a thinner flashing. Or cover the existing flashing with paint, vinyl, or possibly stucco. So, we'll see.

After all of this is fixed we will then be able to see the stucco and see what we think of the color. We decided on Sunday to keep it the way it is until we could see it with the trim and shingles. I really think the stucco will be okay in the long run, but right now the flashing issue is much more pressing.

In national news, the stock market is still tanking, unemployment is still rising, and the economy looks bleak. On the bright side, gas at the Race Way here is down to $1.78.

We are ready for Spring!

Tide Gal & Tide Guy

Stucco??

Okay. This is where we stand. We had stucco put on the two dormers on the front of the house and and the small cover above the side door. The first attempt did not turn out great. Unfortunately, I picked the color with a friend and the stucco guy. It looked horrible. It started out pink. Yep, pink. Then, dried a little better. Still not great, but better. So, we tried again. This time both Tide Guy and I picked the color. The second attempt was better and more brown. We debated the color for hours and even called another friend to give an opinion. The stucco was done on Tuesday and we decided today (Sunday) that it will work. I really think it will be okay once the rest of the black shingles are on top of the porch and the white vinyl is up as the trim. Hopefully, it won' t look yellow or be too light.

The masons finished their work yesterday. They were able to get the steps completed in the garage and on the side door. When we are ready, they will return to do the front steps and build the wall to disguise the air conditioning unit.

We had great weather this weekend and took three loads on the trailer to my friends to dispose. The place looks better with all the paper, plastic, sticks, boxes, etc. gone. Plus, we've been able to pick up most of the brick pieces in the yard. We still have lots of work to do, but I know it is all going to be worth it.

The concrete guys poured the concrete Thursday and it looks great! Moving on!

Ready for spring!

Tide Gal & Tide Guy

It's Official

It's official. China referred through March 6, 2006. We only have 1 year and 8 months of referrals to go. Maybe in 5 years?? At the rate of 4 days a month, who knows?

We are supposed to pick our new stucco color tonight. I hope we don't pick the wrong color again! It was so cold yesterday, the mason guys did not work. I hope it warmed up enough for them early enough today so they could finish the last part of the house. We are also supposed to have concrete poured in the garage, but it needs to warm up for that, too.

Lots to look forward to!

SNOW!

We heard rumors we would have snow this morning when we woke. We never get snow and we certainly never get snow when it is predicted. Well, it was predicted we would have 2.5-3 inches when we woke. And we did have 3 inches of snow and it was still coming down heavy. We were so shocked. The snow was beautiful, so we took pictures of the house we live in and ran to our new house. Our new house would have looked great, but we still have scaffolds, pallets of brick, buckets, machinery, etc. everywhere. Unfortunately, the temperature went up and the sun came out, so the snow started disappearing quickly about 10 am. It was funny to see our buttercups blooming beneath the snow.

Tide Guy was gone last week, so a friend and I met the stucco guy to pick the stucco color. We picked a grayish color to match the key ways above the windows. Unfortunately, it was too pink. It was really pink before it cured. So, we are trying again. This time the stucco guy had us narrow it down again and he will get us new samples. We are going to consider something in the brown family this time.

Gas prices are about the same, but the economy is still terrible. Our favorite Mexican restaurant, due to the increase of produce, now charges $1.50 for the third serving of chips and salsa.

In the adoption world, it looks like China referred through March 6, 2006. A whole 4 days. Two of which are weekend days. It seems that March 7, 2006, is a large day so it is possible China will only refer one day next month. Yuk.

We have started filling out paperwork to submit to our adoption agency. We are basically done except for one or two questions and getting a money order. Once that is sent in we can get our home study appointment in place. We spent a bit of today rearranging a storage room in this house. We have stacks of lighting fixtures, plumbing equipment, and other items stored here for the new house. This is all in addition to the household goods stored in another room. It looks more "homey", but there is still some work to do to make it look better.

Happy March
Tide Gal & Tide Guy