Updates for May-July

So, its been about 3 months since I last posted... now, there's the Jen everyone knows and loves! We've had quite a bit going on - the biggest of which was the housing renovation/disaster that occured during the month of May.

For those of you that don't know, we submitted a warranty claim about a year ago concerning the extremely high levels of humidity in the house (which would reach 75% in the summer - yuck!). After numerous sub-contractors and inspectors, they finally determined that the humidity was a result of ground water seeping up through the foundation and vaporizing into the house. To put things in perspective, the humidity was so bad that it destroyed the Brazilian Teak hardwood floors we had installed two years ago and caused mold/mildew to grow on random things throughout the house (e.g., a pair of dry cleaned pants hanging in the closet). The warranty department decided that the best course of action would be to remove all flooring downstairs, install a moisture barrier over the foundation and replace the flooring. Simple, right? HA!

Well, demolition finally started on May 5th. We were told that the whole process would take no longer than a week and a half. Again, HA! It took them almost a month to lay the new floors. I had to keep an eye on them the entire time to make sure things were done correctly (its a good thing I did - I made them reapply the moisture barrier in several locations that were severly lacking, and therefore, insufficient). At one point, we had the A/C off to help the moisture barrier dry faster and the temperature in the house reached 93 degrees! That kind of heat, combined with the over-powering fumes from the moisture barrier and the constant need for supervision, almost drove me batty.

Its now two months later, and we are STILL waiting for them to come back to fix mistakes that were made. At least we now have beautiful floors - we decided to replace the tile and carpet downstairs with a handscraped mahogany wood floor. I'll try to post some pictures of the transformation soon (I still need to take "after" pics). Now, the only question is: did the moisture barrier eliminate the problem, or did we do all this for nothing?

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After the stress of the housing renovation, we've spent the rest of the summer hanging out at home or the pool... anywhere to keep cool. Niki, Loren and Taryn came to visit mid-June and we had fun taking the kids to the park. Here's a few pictures of our day at the park.

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July has been fairly uneventful so far. We spent the 4th of July hanging out at the house, trying out Addie's new slip-n-slide and indulging in some popsicles. Here's a few pictures of that afternoon.

We took Addie to her first fireworks show that night at a nearby park. Kris was surprised that so many people would show up for a display put on by the City of Cedar Park, but it was actually pretty good. Addie watched the whole time, oohing and ahhing over the fireworks and naming all the colors. After running around with Daddy before the show started, and sitting through the display, she was one tired little girl. So tired, in fact, that she slept until 10am the next morning! Whoo Hoo!

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Finally, I thought I'd include a few belly pictures. I really haven't taken too many this time - I hope that's not an indication that there will be less pictures of the second child, than there were for the first.

Overall, I've been feeling well... just a bit tired, but that's to be expected, especially in this heat. Theres only about 5-6 more weeks to go, and I'm sure they will go by quickly, but I'm already hoping to meet our little bundle a little earlier than expected (just not TOO early).

Hope all is well with everyone reading this.