The cup overflows

When J went to the basement, she heard some odd dripping noises. She asked me whether something was wrong with the dehumidifier. I headed into the basement and quickly saw the problem.

The drain at the base of the exterior stairs to the basement had clogged. With the endless rain we have been getting, water had gotten high enough to go over the sill and creep into the house. I took this photo after I spent a couple of minutes with the very useful bilge pump to get some water out. I did get sprayed several times before setting it up correctly. Crucially, I had to put a log over the hose so it wouldn't flop into my face.



After doing that I could get most of the water out in about five minutes. The problem was that in 10 minutes, the water filled back in again. Water apparently was seeping through the walls.

I was putting so much effort into the pumping because it was very uncomfortable to stand on the stairs while trying to manipulate the snake. I first tried the toilet auger, because the clog usually is in the first couple of feet. But I couldn't make any progress. I then moved onto the 25 foot snake. After I ran about 10 feet into the drain with no effect, I decided to call a plumber. I then tried the auger again. Not working. By now the water had filled up to the sill again, so I re-drained it with the bilge pump. Seriously, it is amazing. Buy one if you ever think you need to drain something quickly by hand. The plumber still had not shown up, so I decided to try the snake until he showed up. Well, I beat the plumber.

I have not measured it yet, but I think it took about 15 feet of snake to clear the clog. Ugh. I think I may buy a drill powered snake to speed the process up in the future. It's a huge pain to hand feed that much.

Holiday Cheer

It feels like October but the holidays are upon us. This year the decorating is similar to previous ones, but we made a few tweaks.

Like last year (when, apparently, I forgot to take a picture) our tree is nestled between both sofas, tucking it a bit more out of the way so that the toddler can't do too much damage and it can't get knocked over by cat or child. We've now had the tree in all 3 available corners of the living room over the last few years - I like that we have some choice on where to put it.

We bought new lights this year, too, based on a review on The Wirecutter, our go-to place before we shop these days. and bought GE Colorite LED lights. I know they're energy efficient but no, they still don't look as nice as the old fashioned kind. Also we found it weird that there is so much purple in there, a color they don't usually include in colored lights. But as it's our toddler's favorite color, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

The fireplace looks mostly the same except this year we used live greenery we bought at a fundraiser, instead of the plastic one (ugh look at all those toys!)

Now I remember why we use artificial - needles everywhere!!

I went all Martha Stewart and made a felt tree for the toddler to decorate, though mostly she just wants to tear off the gingerbread man's eyes...

We skipped the outdoor lights this year - it seems I only have the energy for them alternating years (I did it last year. But we do have a new wreath and some more greenery.

After looking around our neighborhood, I decided I want to put wreaths in both upstairs windows. Of course my new front door wreath (that I bought last year on sale) does not seem to be for sale anymore, so I won't be able to create a matching set - or even anything complimentary, from at least a quick glance at all my usual stores. So I might need to start fresh next year. If I do, I'll have to remember to buy a thinner wreath - this one is so fat that we had to put it on our storm door since putting it on our front door pushed the storm door out a few inches.

Now we just need a little snow to add the real finishing touches on the making the house feel Christmasy.

A Place for Everything (and everything in our place)

It's that busy time of year when we don't actually have time update the blog because we're too busy decorating, raking, or shopping. None of those are really blog-worthy anyway.

But one lingering conundrum we're having in this season of gifting - TOO MUCH STUFF!

Our living room AND basement are loaded up with toys - both annoying small ones that come in pieces (blocks, crayons, puzzles, doctor kit, train) and big ones that take up a lot of space (foam wedges, slide, basketball hoop).

We're trying to figure out the best way to take our rooms back. A longer term plan, that we'll start looking into this winter, is to convert our sun room into a finished playroom. But for now, we'd just like our floors clear. We clean up every night but even when everything is "away," it's still cluttered.

We cleared a shelf in the office and started putting at least some of her toys there - trains on the right, doll accessories and puzzles on the left, plus some of her favorite books (the rest are upstairs in her room which is full to the brim with toys too).

Thanks to a disciplined daycare, the toddler understands the idea of "cleaning up" and we're working on taking out just one thing at a time. But there's still the matter of simply not having enough space (or at least not enough hidden space). We don't have the room or inclination to buy a separate piece of dedicated toy storage like this, since we want it to blend into our decor, but we could use some ideas.

Moms and dads out there, what works for you (besides just owning less stuff, which is also a very good option but rather impossible thanks to too many generous grandparents)?