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Mar. 9th, 2003 08:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckMonday, we'll be starting Lamaze classes. Scott signed us up, and the folks running the class freaked a little about it. Apparently, their procedure demands that I should be the one to register, since I'm the pregnant one, and that we should add him on after the class starts. They actually called to make sure that there was a pregnant woman involved somewhere and then kind of whined at me about our not having done things properly (We're doing the class through the local community college, and the registration office wouldn't have cared if we were human or not as long as we had the registration fee and a social security number). I asked them why it mattered so much, and they couldn't come up with a reason, so I'm not going to feel particularly guilty about it.
We've also started our baby shower registry. We went to Babies 'R' Us and focused on large items. We're probably going to stick with them for the very specific stuff, the crib, the stroller, that sort of thing, and then go with Target for the more generic things. We spent a lot of time figuring out which items were within my physical capability and which weren't. We had to give up on the idea of a crib that could be used later as a bed frame for a twin bed because I simply couldn't reach over the sides. We also ended up kind of frustrated on the subject of the stroller because my sister-in-law has passed on her infant car seat to us but not her stroller. We absolutely must have a stroller that we can attach the car seat to. Sadly, strollers that can handle car seats are only sold in conjunction with car seats, so we'll have to buy a second car seat in order to get the stroller. Grumble.
The date for the shower has been set. Sunday April 27th seems to be the date that works best for me and for the woman who'll be hosting it. That gives me plenty of time to complete the registration (or should) and get the guest list together. I need to call my grandfather to get a couple of addresses, doing an end run around my mother who feels I shouldn't invite either of my aunts even though they live in this state (I must confess that I'm hoping they won't feel obligated to come. It's a bit far, and we aren't all that close, but... Not inviting them would be rude, at least in my opinion). Of course, Sandra, my sister-in-law's mother-in-law, wants to send invitations to my mother and sisters even though it's physically impossible for any of them to attend.
I also need to ask my mother-in-law if there's anybody she thinks I absolutely need to invite. My list is already fairly long. The iffiest proposition there is Scott's aunt. She lives in South Bend which is, from my point of view, too far away for her to come up for the event, but... The family's very big on doing this sort of thing right, and I don't want to offend her. (I'm already leaving her hanging on the question of whether or not we want her to crochet a baptismal dress for our little one.)
I'm trying to come up with a list of things we need to get done around the house before the baby's born so that I can start trying to recruit people to help with the tasks. (I plan to include this sort of assistance as a possible shower gift.) Repainting the spare room is going to be quite a challenge because of what was done to the house before we bought it.
Basically, the woman who owned the house smoked. The walls were coated in nicotine and other such nasty stuff. She died, and her heirs wanted to sell the place as fast as possible so that they could get their money. They slapped on a coat of paint with no care as to keeping the floors clean or the windows openable. They also (and this to my mind is the worst) did not adequately wash the walls before painting. For the most part, this isn't horrible because the paint isn't peeling or anything, but... Any bit of wall that gets steamed ends up with disgusting orange-brown stuff oozing through the paint. The bathroom walls bled for nearly two years before all of the nicotine came out. Our bedroom wall still bleeds near the humidifier.
LunarGeography has suggested that we may have to sand off the paint, but Scott's pointed out a big problem with that. We don't know for certain whether or not there's lead based paint under there somewhere. We also really can't do much to steam the crap out of the walls-- The bathroom took years of showers. Our walls are basically pressed cardboard, so trying to use a steam cleaner on them would be particularly stupid. We're more or less going to have to hope that we can find some way of truly sealing the nicotine in. Just need to go to a paint store and ask, I suppose.
We've also started our baby shower registry. We went to Babies 'R' Us and focused on large items. We're probably going to stick with them for the very specific stuff, the crib, the stroller, that sort of thing, and then go with Target for the more generic things. We spent a lot of time figuring out which items were within my physical capability and which weren't. We had to give up on the idea of a crib that could be used later as a bed frame for a twin bed because I simply couldn't reach over the sides. We also ended up kind of frustrated on the subject of the stroller because my sister-in-law has passed on her infant car seat to us but not her stroller. We absolutely must have a stroller that we can attach the car seat to. Sadly, strollers that can handle car seats are only sold in conjunction with car seats, so we'll have to buy a second car seat in order to get the stroller. Grumble.
The date for the shower has been set. Sunday April 27th seems to be the date that works best for me and for the woman who'll be hosting it. That gives me plenty of time to complete the registration (or should) and get the guest list together. I need to call my grandfather to get a couple of addresses, doing an end run around my mother who feels I shouldn't invite either of my aunts even though they live in this state (I must confess that I'm hoping they won't feel obligated to come. It's a bit far, and we aren't all that close, but... Not inviting them would be rude, at least in my opinion). Of course, Sandra, my sister-in-law's mother-in-law, wants to send invitations to my mother and sisters even though it's physically impossible for any of them to attend.
I also need to ask my mother-in-law if there's anybody she thinks I absolutely need to invite. My list is already fairly long. The iffiest proposition there is Scott's aunt. She lives in South Bend which is, from my point of view, too far away for her to come up for the event, but... The family's very big on doing this sort of thing right, and I don't want to offend her. (I'm already leaving her hanging on the question of whether or not we want her to crochet a baptismal dress for our little one.)
I'm trying to come up with a list of things we need to get done around the house before the baby's born so that I can start trying to recruit people to help with the tasks. (I plan to include this sort of assistance as a possible shower gift.) Repainting the spare room is going to be quite a challenge because of what was done to the house before we bought it.
Basically, the woman who owned the house smoked. The walls were coated in nicotine and other such nasty stuff. She died, and her heirs wanted to sell the place as fast as possible so that they could get their money. They slapped on a coat of paint with no care as to keeping the floors clean or the windows openable. They also (and this to my mind is the worst) did not adequately wash the walls before painting. For the most part, this isn't horrible because the paint isn't peeling or anything, but... Any bit of wall that gets steamed ends up with disgusting orange-brown stuff oozing through the paint. The bathroom walls bled for nearly two years before all of the nicotine came out. Our bedroom wall still bleeds near the humidifier.
LunarGeography has suggested that we may have to sand off the paint, but Scott's pointed out a big problem with that. We don't know for certain whether or not there's lead based paint under there somewhere. We also really can't do much to steam the crap out of the walls-- The bathroom took years of showers. Our walls are basically pressed cardboard, so trying to use a steam cleaner on them would be particularly stupid. We're more or less going to have to hope that we can find some way of truly sealing the nicotine in. Just need to go to a paint store and ask, I suppose.
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no subject
Date: 2003-03-10 05:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-10 06:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-16 08:44 pm (UTC)We do plan to clean the walls as well as we can. It's just that the stuff I'm worried about has already been painted over. Some people don't think (although I strongly suspect that in this case the people involved simply didn't care).
I suppose we could put up some appropriate spells... No. My in-laws will be helping paint (and I won't be allowed in the room because of the fumes), and they'd never understand.
Ow.
Date: 2003-03-10 02:35 pm (UTC)Good luck with the registry...