Project Update

The project is finished other than final touches.  However, I need to take the final pictures yet too.  So here are some photos from the last update (also posted to Facebook but I know some people dont check that).

Made my way back to the window after coming across from the kitchen

Kitchen complete

To the edge of the stairs (sure hope it matching up with the hallway)

I wasn't looking forward to going in front of the staircase

Family Room needs furniture

Just about to finish the dining room (complete enough to bring the table back in)

Making my way into the hallway

In front of the stairs complete - end is in sight but still too far away

Daddy's little helper was taking a baby doll break.  She did so good helping (getting in the way a little), but curious on what I was doing.  I was glad they didn't have to retreat upstairs or to Grandma and Grandpa's.  Her look and smile on this picture is probably one of my favorites!!

She did get a head cold this weekend.  This was her looking up to mom saying "noooosssseeee" (it was runny, red, and tender)

Almost to the door.  The entryway was probably one of the most frustrating sections.  Maybe because it was so close to the end.

I'd Make a Bad Monk...

After spending an entire day on my hands and knees I have a greater appreciation for those in the monastery.  I also will not be quitting my day job to become a professional flooring installer. However, I'm still really happy that we are doing this and it's coming together well. I shared with Sarah last night that when we first started talking about doing a project like this, I said to keep costs down I could do the demo.  In my head I was thinking "oh shoot, what did I get myself into.  Can I do the demo?"  Needless to say, I'm impressing myself and everything is coming together - and plumb too.  I got just about as much done today as I was hoping.  I really wanted to finish off the dining room, but I ran out of daylight for cutting.  It's all fun in flooring until you cut off a finger.  A few frustrations and challenges (cutting around doorways, ripping the wrong side of a board) but all in all it is going well.  That being said, I still have the demo and completion of the powder room.  Total I have about 400 square feet to go (846 total sf).  Of that some sections are going to go really fast, but others will be a pain (tight hallways, powder room).  Enough blabbing, here are some pictures for you...

Prep work and the beginning of install

Dishwasher was more hassle to pull out than working around it

Friday I finished demo and clean up - wanted to get a few rows complete to see what it would be like

With all of the in and out a few bugs got in.  Here is the fly's vantage point of the work

Daddy's little girl doesn't do justice.  This little one LOVES working along side me (sometimes fun, sometimes challenging)

Yes, this has been our dining table.  Don't judge, embrace your inner child

Measured it all out and with some minor adjustments everything was sitting at 52.385" from a straight reference point

Kitchen is coming together - DONT FORGET TO CUT THAT VENT

Awaiting the stove's return

Kitchen sink/island

Dining/Sitting Area coming together

No description necessary

Taping out a vent

Who's that hunk?  I feel like at this point some Men and Work "YMCA" should be playing in the background

Cut once

Measure twice... wrong picture sequence or fixing an error?!?!

Sink (we will likely need to redo all baseboards.  Ugh! But it will look nicer in the end)

Family room finishing up.  Last board needed a drilled hole for the satellite cable.

Sarah's creative photography or the previously mentioned fly in flight?!?

Cutting out the vent (thanks to my boss for this handy little Sonic Crafter Saw)

It's a useful little guy, but it takes a while

Half the living room complete (was a fear to get it going straight through to the kitchen, but it worked well!)

Completed kitchen.  Just need appliances and baseboards (later)

Project Update

Well today is officially the end of day 1 on the project.  Today was deemed DEMO DAY!!  And I did just that.  Last night I started with the carpet in the family room (which was also interesting to discover different previous modifications to the house).  Then this morning I was planning to go full steam ahead.  Key word in that one was "planning."  I made my way to Duvall to rent a toe-kick saw and was remembering "I bike in Duvall, it isn't that far."  I need to remind myself that I sometimes go for 60+ mile rides.  Well then I made a total bonehead error and forgot to make the cuts around the island after I had returned it.  So by the time I was actively going at the demo it was now 12:30.  Despite being behind schedule, the hardwood came up really well once I got going with a method.  I've got some clean up of cuts that were in hard to reach areas to get tomorrow morning (hopefully doesn't take too long), trip to the dumps with the carpet, and then some good sweeping/cleaning, and prepping for the floors.  I think there is a chance that by the end of the day tomorrow, I'll either have some wood down or a good plan in place for Saturday AM.  Here are some before pictures and progress update shots.

Gabbie's Play Room (the new set up will use this as an extended kitchen/dining with a sitting area in front of the fireplace)

Kitchen from the Dining Area

Living Room

Living Room

Carpet Removal - Living Room

Lots of carpet tacks to pull up

Pre Day 1 so it was still fun :)

Ordered 51 cases - 19sf/case

Carpet Removed from Dining Area

Pre-work into the kitchen

Kitchen Wood Out (anyone want some 3rd grade solid maple?!)

Wasn't Planning to do this much into the walkway, but caught up on schedule and went at it

View into walkway

Moderate Home Makeover - Steinbrecher Edition

I'll admit that overall there is nothing "Extreme" about this.  However, if you want to stay tuned to an either really frustrated or really excited Steinbrecher household, I'm going to try and keep updated with some pictures.

What is it that I'm talking about?

For a while now Sarah and I have been thinking about some moderately significant home improvement projects.  We've really taken some time to look at our house, what we have, how it is placed on the lot, the yard, and visions of more than just Gabriella and Nikki's feet running around.  Since we moved in, we were never thrilled about the "formal dining room."  It seemed to be nothing more than a space that was used 2-3 times - max.  So about a year ago we moved our family room into that space and opened up the family room to a temporary play room for Gabriella.  Our kitchen table is a little small - and doesn't provide the greatest route through the home; we came up with the idea of extending the kitchen/dining room into the play room, but retaining a sitting area in front of the fireplace.  To make this happen we knew we had to do something about the floors.

Currently, the first floor is a mixture of carpet and hardwood.  The entry through to the kitchen is hardwood, but the office/den, living room, and "play room" are carpet.  We wanted to at minimum make the play room hardwood so we could extend the kitchen/dining room as above.  The trouble was that we couldn't find the same hardwood and wouldn't mind a darker color.  As we continued to brainstorm, the ideas got more and more elaborate and expensive.

That brings us to today.

Right now there are 51 cases of engineered bamboo sitting throughout the house.  I've been pulling off all of the baseboard, tomorrow David is going to help me move the kitchen appliances and other heavy items, and Thursday is demo day (hoping I can get it done in 1 day).  I'm ripping everything on the first floor out, and then installing (with some help from David as needed - I'll return the favor in a few weeks), throughout the weekend.  The result will either be a very happy, satisfied Andrew, a frustrated, defeated Andrew who finally hired someone to finish the job, or a homeless family because the frustrated Andrew destroyed the house.  I'm confident we'll get the job done well.  It has already been a fun (at times frustrating), but definitely a learning experience.  Tools needed, how to look at the floors, appreciation for the construction that is complete - there are a lot of things to consider.

I'll probably start taking pictures once I get to demo.  Stay tuned!

WHAT?!??!! WHOA!!!!!

I'M ALMOST 2?!?!  HOW DID THAT HAPPEN SO QUICK?!?!?!??!

I Did It, I Did It, I Did It!!

That title, truly doesn't do the same justice as an adorable 23 month old, waving her arms, shaking her hips, and singing it with such pride!

Over the 4th of July, we took advantage of the weird week (weird in that vacation schedules made work pretty unproductive).  Between the weekend, Sarah's typical Tuesday/Wednesday off, and then my taking off Thursday and Friday, we realized it was the perfect opportunity to focus on potty training.  I was hesitant and a little doubtful, but since I tried to let Gabriella keep her binky even longer and that went without a hiccup, I shook my head and said "yes dear."  We followed the 3-Day Potty Training approach, and with the added days, it just helped Gabriella really understand what was going on and build some new habits.  It wasn't easy, there were accidents, but it was totally worth it and I would deem it a success!

Basically, in the 3-day approach you commit to not leaving the house, spending most time in one room, put a potty chair in the middle of the room so it is always accessible, and start playing. The primary caveat is that your child runs around bare bottom for the entire time (naps and bedtime are up to you - we had her in a diaper).  This way, as soon as she starts to go, no fabric is there to soak it up, she associates the feelings with going potty, and with encouragement/acknowledgement that she is going and helping to get her to the potty chair she quickly realizes 'I should be sitting there when that happens.'

Gabriella got a sticker for every time she went in the potty which helped motivate her as well.  She is still a bit scared to go #2, but that often happens and we will get through that.  Once we had the "toddler seat" for the big girl toilet she took to that better than the potty chair.

I can't recall the last time she had an accident at home, but she has still had a few when in new environments because she is focusing on playing, and then there was one time in the car where we decided to see if she could hold it for a few more minutes.

All-in-all I would say we are doing great and I never thought I'd be so proud of someone being able to "go." She is doing such a good job that she is even preparing us for Lil Bug.  Gabriella doesn't like to be wet, and she now knows the feeling of having to go.  So, even though she sleeps in a diaper, she often wakes up, yells for us that "Gabbie pee pee," and one of us (lately it has been Sarah since she is sleeping so poorly) goes in, takes off her diaper and gets her to the bathroom.  In fact, the other night, Sarah said it was pretty cute holding a nearly completely sleeping Gabbie up on the potty to go.

We can now mark off (though we will still have accidents) another big transition from our list which include:

• No more binky
• Potty training
• Move from crib to new room and big girl bed (needs to give up her crib for her little brother/sister)

GREAT JOB GABRIELLA!!

I'd include some pictures, but, really?!?!  Give the girl some privacy :-)

"Be the Good News"

Andrew and I had a date night last Saturday.  We started off going to our Parish Appreciation Dinner at Blessed Sacrament and then headed downtown to the 5th Ave for Les Miserables.  The show was amazing, of course.  But if you can believe it, there was another highlight that I'll spend even more time describing (and for those of you who know my Les Mis obsession, you know that means this has got to be pretty good).


Before we took our seats, a very friendly Canadian couple struck up a conversation with us by glancing at my baby bump and offering Congratulations.  They then asked how we "knew" it was time to try to start a family.  They have been married a couple years now and are trying to decide whether to start trying.  However they are "planners" (especially the wife) and just don't know if it's the right time.  She did talk about how whether or not to have children has never been a question; that she would not want to find herself in old age without family.  How she would feel selfish and unfulfilled and as if her whole life had been lived just for her and no one else.  But at the same time, how intimidating it is to know whether or not you're really ready.


They were surprised to find out this isn't our first baby. We talked about how there are always reasons not to have a baby if you look for them but that there is sometimes no planning for how life turns out.  We told them how we had found out about Andrew's cancer diagnosis and that suddenly whether we would even ever be able to have children became a big unknown and that we decided to try to conceive before Andrew began chemo just a week later.  Suddenly faced with the reality that life isn't completely up to us, a lot of those reasons to wait seemed to be so trivial.  Thankfully, God has blessed us with the ability to have more children despite Andrew's ordeal.  But even so we have never regretted our decision to have our daughter.  She has been the most amazing blessing and gift in our lives.  Andrew described to them the joy of walking through the door at the end of a stressful day at work to have a little girl run up and tackle your legs yelling "DADDY!!!!"  We described how a little person in your home helps you to reclaim your own childhood once again; to appreciate the very little things and look for the wonder in everything around you and to have fun just being silly.  Yes, we were also honest that parenthood comes with its own challenges and stresses as well.  But doesn't every relationship in life and anything good worth pursuing require a degree of sacrifice and work?  In the end, the couple told us they were absolutely inspired by our story and that it was such a true gift to have met us at this specific time for them.


During the homily for our wedding Mass almost four years ago, Bishop Eusebio told us that we as a couple are called to "Be the Good News" in the world.  So yes, I love Les Miserables with a passion.  But I guess the reason that this conversation was so memorable and blog-worthy is that it felt like a moment where Andrew and I were truly being the good news.  It was an affirmation of our vocation to marriage and as a married couple.  Pretty awesome.


Oh, plus I was told to document for the record that Andrew loves going to Les Mis now too!  Because really, who wouldn't?!