In the meantime, I also kept busy brewing beer for the upcoming Super Bowl party at Camp Willow Creek. And yes, of course you are invited.

I know. Not much of a post. But at least I called to say, “Goodnight,” right?

Love, Sharyn

First, Emily brought me some elephant ears. The kind you plant, Mom, not the kind from the bakery. I can’t wait to put them somewhere they will grow. The plastic bag is stunting them until I am ready.

Then, contractors gave us quotes on putting our walls and ceilings back where they belong. 2 quotes in one day. Fancy written quotes delivered by email. You know what this means? This means that someday we may have WALLS AND CEILINGS. This is good because Jason is growing a little too fond of what he likes to call our “rustic” look.

We officially switched over to new-improved leak-free plumbing on January 25. The water billing cycle closed 12 days later, on February 5. The bill was slightly lower – 21% – than the previous month – December 5 through January 5 – when we were gone for about 10 days for Christmas and not using any water. The February 5th bill was also 28% lower than the bill that closed on December 5 and included Thanksgiving. I remember the crushed feeling I had when I got that bill in December because we both made a VERY conscious effort to use less water. I was devastated when it turned out we had actually used more. I mourned with an extra long hot shower the day after getting the bill.

Screw You Water. I’ll use you how I please!

So, the new lower February bill was good, but somewhat anti-climatic. I mean, is 21% worth no ceilings and endless dust all over the place? But I resolved to be patient. March 5th. That would be the true test. A full month on new pipes.

I must have checked online for that bill no less than 30 times Wednesday. It wasn’t updated. By some kind of mind-bottling (“Yeah, mind-bottling. You know, when things are so crazy it gets your thoughts all trapped, like in a bottle?”) phenomenon, I didn’t check again until a short while ago.

The bill has dropped 74% from last month’s slightly reduced bill and 81% from November’s Nightmare Bill. Holy crap, right? We don’t even have our new low-flow toilets yet. I can almost hear Lake Allatoona rising as I type.

I’m still getting better. Now I can get the pizza onto the stone without making a pitstop on the counter/shoes/floor and – even more importantly – I can get it off the stone after its done cooking. Tonight’s pizza actually had a mound of crumbled sausage on top, but it didn’t wait around long enough to have its picture taken. Prima Donna Pizza.

P.S. Happy Birthday Nate!

Ken, The Appliance Technician, says that I put too much soap in there. And, in addition to that, the pump is leaking. He will bring back a new pump tomorrow and I will go on a low-lather diet.

On a side note, remember when someone typed in ALL CAPS and you were all, “Wow! That’s annoying. It feels like he’s yelling at me.” Now they are typing things like this: “people r gonna b all over this song bcuz of guitar hero 3″ and don’t you wonder how it could possibly get worse?

When we came back from our holiday visiting, we found a squishy floor in the powder room. We pulled up the Pergo floors and found wet concrete. What we didn’t find was an apparent source of the squishiness. So we called a professional and Curtis the Plumber became our new favorite.

Curtis wasn’t able to actually find or fix the leak on that first visit in early January, but he did tell us we had pipes that were prone to splitting and would likely need to be replaced soon. Apparently, once they start breaking and splitting they keep on breaking and splitting.

Less than two weeks later, Curtis’ predictions came to fruition. While I was out treating myself to a Birthday Haircutting, Jason was home with the Water Company and the Fire Department putting a stop to the Fountain of Willow Creek in our front yard. This leak was easy to find as it was pushing enough water out into our front yard to create little rivers up and down the street in both directions. The break was on our side of the water main and so we called Curtis back out to save us. In about 15 minutes he had the break fixed and water back on.

At this point, we were taking Curtis really seriously and planning on getting the pipes redone. My parents had planned a trip down for the Super Bowl and we were planning a Super Bowl party. We figured we could wait until after the fun to start tearing the house apart for new pipes. To prepare for the party, I cleaned up and reorganized the garage. I moved the beer closer to the kitchen and added a cabinet for the pint glasses and thought how much our guests would be able to enjoy the home brew with ease. I made a menu and a shopping list. The beer was brewed and just needed to be kegged. All that was left was making and sending the Evite.

Then I went to put something out in the newly organized garage and heard a strange loud hissing. Then I saw a big puddle in the far corner near the water heater room. Then I told Jason,

“Something bad is happening.”

We ran out there and found a pipe coming from the water heater had split and water was shooting all over. We turned off the main. First thing in the morning, we called Curtis and told him to bring the new pipes with him.

So Curtis came Monday and fixed the busted pipe and turned the water back on. Tuesday he started working on putting in the new pipes.

The house is on a slab, which makes it hard to add new things to the first floor that require wiring because there’s no access to the walls. Curtis had mentioned the better way to run the pipes would be to go through the floor between first and second floors, so the pipes would be in insulated space, instead of attic space where the temperature fluctuates more. But there would be damage to the ceilings in the kitchen and living room if he ran them through the floor.

We agreed to go through the floor. Curtis was trilled he was not going to have to go into an attic and we figured we could use the opportunity to get some new wiring. Dad the Electrician packed up the Electric Van and headed down with Dan and loads of recess lights. We have now have two in the pantry and more than I can count in the living room and kitchen. Its awesome.

Less than 48 hours after leaving in the Electric Van, Dad was back, this time on a plane with Mom. We still watched the Super Bowl, but we spent the other 3 days of their visit tearing the tile out of the bathroom, installing more recess lights in the dining room, running the network and speaker wires and rewiring the master bath. Oh and making 17 trips to Lowe’s and/or Home Depot. Since the master bath is directly over the kitchen, this is a great opportunity to redo that too.

That’s pretty much why you weren’t invited to the Super Bowl Party (unless we don’t know you, then that’s the reason). The big Super Bowl Party turned into a more intimate gathering for four with way too much chili and Coors Light.

At this point, we still have no ceilings in the kitchen or living room and only 1 of 3 bathrooms is operating. The next step will be ordering the fixtures for the master bath and getting the drywall guy into put the walls back in the bathroom and the ceilings back in the other rooms. I’ll try to keep you updated.

We had a great trip to NJ for Christmas and came home to this. Well, not exactly this. We helped this along by tearing soggy Pergo out of the way. I wish these pictures were of the scratch-and-sniff variety so I could share the full experience with you.

In addition to recycled pumpkins, we have other fully seasonal decorations as well.