This is Halloween 2014

Dudes.
I'm off today (hooray!).
But it's not because I am adding the finishing touches to a costume so epic it will surely take 1st place in some contest.
And it's not because I will have droves of tiny trick-or-treaters at my front door.
And it's definitely not because I have Halloween movies to watch, or festive treats to make, or spooky cocktails to drink.
No, I am taking a day off to get a head start on the chaos at our home.

I don't know why we do this to ourselves.

Actually, scratch that. I absolutely know why we do this to ourselves.
The laziness of summer and goal to soak up every last drop of sunshine and warmth leaves little in the productivity department.
It can wait is our favorite summertime motto and I will not apologize for it.
Chicago summers are short, less than 3 months, and even this year I feel like we got jipped a little.
I think we witnessed one 90 degree day during the steady reign of mid-70's.

But I digress.
Now, here we are, trying to bide our time between summer and the dreaded dead of winter.
Add to that an even smaller timeline to get all the loose ends tied up around our home before Thanksgiving because you know...people like to use the bathroom and wash their hands from time to time. And one bathroom for 50+ people ain't gonna cut it.

So, we have the bathroom renovation. Which you are all very aware of because it's all I talk about.
This renovation is already mapped out to consume most minutes during our weekends...and then some.
Some like today.
Today I am running around to pick out and purchase all the little necessities on my list so we can install them or order them and have everything arrive in time.

But then we decided to dump two more projects into the mix, and life decided to add one more.

We need to have a dead oak tree removed in our backyard.
We knew it was there before we moved in, but didn't see the rush because "it seemed sturdy enough."
But now, Mark has finally finished our hot tub renovation from last winter. He re-wired all the electrical and replaced all the rotting exterior wood with durable new stuff that will make it look like we just purchased it. As we ended up renting our old home, the hot tub had to be removed for liability purposes, so since then it's new home has been at Mark's shop.

Now we are ready to place it into the back yard.
And guess where that placement is?
That's right, under the dead oak tree.
So, now is the time to remove said tree and then drop the tub.
We might as well knock out two birds with one stone since both projects will inevitably chew up our pretty lawn with cranes and Batco's.
I don't know how much it is to rent either piece of equipment, I just thank my lucky stars that my husband has one and a family member drives the other one.

So I called some fool to come out tomorrow and give me a price to have the tree taken down.
I had to have so many companies come out to bid tree removals at my prior design jobs that I could probably do it in my sleep.
This poor guy doesn't know what he is up against.

I guess the scheduling for both of those things will happen at the same time as demo.
It's always nice to have major projects commencing at the exact same time but at very different places of your house. It keeps it very easy to manage and is not stressful at all. :)

Now, the other fun thing that happened and should (hopefully) be resolved by now, is our well pump took a shit. We moved from a community that had lines tied to city water and moved back to my parents lifestyle and rusty well water.
Well water, I might add, that Mark was able to modify with a chlorine injector to eliminate those nasty rust stains, both on the tub and in my hair.
But, we kept noticing that the water pressure wasn't "right."
Even after changing the filters, it still seemed a little slow.
So Mark goes to check it out and the pump is at, like, 40lbs or something. I don't know what it's supposed to be, but that is not a good number.

Fun fact, when your pump goes out, it's best to turn off the water completely as there is some sort of check valve that will keep running forever until it burns out as well.
So during the day while we are away and overnight, it's off.
That means you can't flush the toilet for middle of the night runs.
Nor can you brush your teeth in the morning if you wake up before your husband.
Nor can you wash the crust out of your eyes.

He pulled out 150 feet of pipe to get to the pump.
The well is located in our garage, and not under our home like most newer houses with wells.
So at least the muck will be away from me as much as possible.
And while he had the pipe out, he might as well replace it and all the gauges with fancy new stuff, right? Right.
I just handed over my credit card. I have stopped looking at the bill until I get paid and can start chipping away at it. No need for more stress.

Wow, this post was incredibly long-winded.

I will leave you with our costumes from last Halloween:

Someone bring me a black vodka cocktail and some Reese's....stat!!
Happy Halloween folks!!