Rare Disease Day

Today, if you didn't know (like I didn't until an email showed up in my inbox late this afternoon), is Rare Disease Day.

We also learned today that Reuben does NOT have a "rare" disease, but what is considered an "ultra rare" disease because there are fewer than 300 people documented to have the condition. We knew that there were only about 60 cases reported in medical literature, which in itself attests to the rarity of his condition, but to know that counting all of the known cases results in fewer than 300 is kind of mind boggling.

And, as Matt points out as he's looking over my shoulder, even considering it a "disease" is somewhat odd. Reuben doesn't have a "disease" in the sense that you usually think of disease - something that's transmitted, or that you acquire at some point during your life. Reuben was born this way - with an oddly formed 20th chromosome in every cell of his body from the day of his conception. It's hard to think of it as a disease when it's so fundamentally part of who he is - who God designed him to be. This is the little boy who was conceived when Matt decided to trust that God meant it when he said that children were a blessing. This is the little boy who, after his birth, laid in my arms for an hour before we bothered to check to see if Baby was a boy or a girl (one of the beauties of the relaxed nature of giving birth at home!) because I was just so happy to hold my little baby - nothing mattered beyond the fact that this was my baby and I loved him (or her!) This is the little boy who we very intentionally named "Reuben Matthew," which means, "behold, a son! a gift from God."

Reuben loves to sit with us during our Friday night Bible study with his own (blue) Bible open on his lap.

Photos of airplane rides

Seeing is much more interesting than just reading, so here are some photos I had time to download tonight...

Wheeeee! Krassi can hardly contain himself, he's so excited.

Daddy's a wanted man: Rinnah is just off for her landing on the couch, and Reuben already has his hand on Daddy's knee all set to climb on, and Krassi is keeping close by hoping for HIS turn to come again soon!

Reuben adds as much excitement to his rides with his shrieks and bouncing as Daddy does by providing the ride!

I love how Krassi is getting more adamant about his turn - hand on Daddy's chest, "I'm ready Dad! Here I am! Is it my turn yet?" Who needs words to communicate. I, personally, think it's as clear as day what's on Krassi's mind!

Steady

There's much more I'd like to post, but it's not going to happen, so here, as much for my benefit as for the benefit of anyone reading, is a simple note that Krassi's weight is holding steady at 32 pounds. No gain, but no significant loss, either, and we've had what have seemed to be really poor eating days. So I'm pleased with him holding steady.

He's got a new seating arrangement for meal times which is working really well for him. Maybe I'll get a photo someday. ;) We're also really backing off on variety, really making sure everything is very even for texture, and trying to be very responsive to his cues to be done, even if it doesn't seem like enough, to give him the chance to feel like he has a say at mealtime in hopes that he'll loosen up about it a bit. It's been a while since getting ready to eat has brought him to tears.

For that matter, he's seemed much more comfortable and relaxed in many ways, not just eating. And part of that is he's more comfortable to express himself (through crying) when he doesn't like the way something's going. ;) (This would be when I take an object away that is not good for him to play with, or when I pop through the window into the addition to check on something with Matt and come back to find Krassi on the floor of the existing house right under the window, and I come in and close the window. What nerve, Mom!)  But this is a good thing in our eyes - he's learning that it's okay to have an opinion! You should see that boy scoot himself across the floor when it's airplane-ride-with-Dad night. Doesn't matter where he is, as soon as he sees what's going on, he's there and has his hand up on Daddy's chest saying in his own way, "My turn! my turn!!" Love it.

So that's easy and light. ;) Heavier stuff coming maybe tomorrow if I get the time. ;)


Oh, and we passed our mechanical rough-in inspection this morning. Now there are no more inspections until the final one. Full speed (ahem!) ahead!

An update on a variety of things.

First of all, an update on Reuben. After I posted last night, he and I went up to bed, and I didn't even bother putting him into his bed (a mattress on the floor within sight of our bed) but just tucked him in with me for closer monitoring. Matt and I decided that he (Matt) should sleep in the living room with our cell phone so I could call him from our home phone if I needed him, but so he could get some sleep, because unlike me, he can't go back to sleep in between seizures, so he had essentially been up for the whole night the night before.

Reuben was awake every 20-30 minutes last night for about a minute and a half at a time, vivaciously "talking" with me about whatever he could see - the moon! the glass of water! the cat! the pillow! - and then would be back to sleep as soon as I could get him onto his pillow.

But he had no seizures. Not a single one. And I know, because I was next to him all night long, and awake every 20-30 minutes, and there were no seizures.

What a joy it was today to wake up to a normal Thursday, and not an emergency admittance to the hospital for a VEEG.

He went all day today without any seizures. We always like that. ;) We don't need to set more personal records.

~~~

Work happened on the house today! Even knowing what it entailed, Joel came back to help Matt fill the hopper for the cellulose blown-in insulation for the walls. Chad had time available today, too, so he was here for much of the day helping...with something. I don't know. ;) But all three men were pretty messy by the end of the day!

I am so excited to live in this corner of the living room! It looks out over one of our larger perennial beds, and will have a table in it for puzzles, crafts, (client meetings), games, whatever.

Looks like Joel's working and Chad's keeping him company. ;) (Just kidding Chad - I know you've done more work around here than anyone other than Matt!)

[Just got back downstairs from helping Reuben work through a complex partial seizure - the first one of the day, but apparently a reminder that the night ahead may not be quite as smooth as I was hoping for!]

Reuben was bummed that I wouldn't let him go out and "bum bum" with Daddy. Too messy. ;) This window is still our primary access between the house and the addition. Cutting it out will likely be one of the very last steps. 

Around 3, both Joel and Chad had to leave, and Matt was able to finish up the last few wall cavities at the entry by himself. The insulating is DONE!!

Over the next week Matt has plans to hook up the last of the fresh air ducts and get the mechanical rough-in inspection completed, put up the rest of the rigid insulation under the upper level radiant heat tubes, and frame up the mechanical chase in the basement so he can get the next load of sheet rock delivered because next week Saturday, he's got a group of seven guys coming to help him sheet rock! They're hoping with two teams of four (one for the main level, one for the basement) that they'll be able to get at least all of the big stuff done, if not ALL done. Super exciting. (But still a long way to go. Finish work is putsy work. So I'm not holding my breath for a grandma-moves-in-before-Baby-arrives situation, but again, I tend to be an optimist...Remember, Andrea, it will happen at the right time!!)

~~~

And last, but not least, a few tidbits on Krassi.

He had an eye exam earlier this week, and there is nothing mechanically wrong with his vision, so he doesn't need glasses. ;) That's good. ;) Mr. "I don't want my hat on or my mittens on, or my sleeves below my elbows" probably wouldn't take well to glasses. He did not enjoy his eye exam, and told me so for the whole ride home.

Krassi is still not eating well (as far as quantity). He does not have any scheduled doctor visits coming up soon, so I'm thinking we'll need to do something just to check his weight (our scale is not good if you're looking for anything beyond a generalization. We may need to remedy that!) to make sure it's not declining again. Because I wouldn't be surprised if it was. That boy does NOT like to eat.

Along those lines, we're seeing him be more vocal and active about the things he does and does not like. He now will not only cry when he has to give up a toy, but if he even sees us handling something that he would like to play with but is not able to (or allowed to for safety reasons), even if he hasn't had it in his hand he will cry, and loudly, about it. It doesn't last too long, but he's pretty effective about getting his point across. This means that brushing and flossing his teeth before bed has also become increasingly difficult. Or putting his orthotics on. Because he's both getting stronger, and more comfortable expressing his own opinion about these things it is no longer as easy for us to just take care of them! This also manifests itself in more pleasant ways. Last night he was on the far end of the kitchen and Matt and Rinnah were in the living room starting to do their Wednesday night airplane ride routine. Matt told me later that as soon as Krassi saw what was happening, he turned on the speed and made his way over to the doorway between the kitchen and living room before Rinnah's ride was even over! He was so excited for his turn. And two more times that night he got himself right over by Matt asking, through his presence, for another turn.

HA! Got you, Dad!

Still in the midst of it (now with a few photos)

Music is such a significant part of my life (listening to music, not making it.) Because of this I am deliberate about the music I choose to surround myself with. This song has been very meaningful to me over the last few months, and as it came around again in the van's CD changer tonight, the words were particularly relevant.

I've had questions without answers
I've known sorrow, I have known pain.
But there's one thing that I cling to
You are faithful, Jesus you're true.

When hope is lost, I'll call you Savior
When pain surrounds, I'll call you Healer
When silence falls, you'll be the Song within my heart

And I will praise you,
I will praise you,
When the tears fall, still I will sing to you.
I will praise you,
I will praise you,
Through the suffering, Jesus, I'll sing

After I posted last night about Reuben, he had about a two hour break, followed by seizures every 30-45 minutes for the rest of the night until he woke for the day around 4:45am and restlessly lay near me or Matt in our bed until 6:15 when he got hit by another tonic/clonic seizure. He was knocked out for about 30 minutes (sometimes this is his response after a seizure - the brain just seems to shut down entirely while it reboots), and then was very agitated, wanting to sleep, but unable to do so until 8:30 when he had another seizure during our breakfast. After recovering from the effects of that one, he had one more at 10:15 and then was apparently good for the day.

Until supper time, when he had another one. And then one about an hour after going to bed. He's been up and down since then, but no seizures.

We'll see what the night brings. This post is getting cut short because he's up again (on my lap) and we're going to try heading up to bed. Tomorrow I hope to add a few photos.

So, for those of you who pray, would you lift up our little boy, and us as well as we look to God to be our Healer and our Song.

I know this is fuzzy (and a confusing photo for anyone who doesn't know our house - back before Owen was born, Matt finished off the two bare-stud closets under the eaves of our 1.5 story cape cod house, and decided that the "tunnel" in front of the dormer was too cool to block off, so finished off this little space as well so the kids have a really cool "secret" passage from one side of the upstairs to the other. They were running/crawling laps through here when a tonic/clonic seizure hit Reuben Wednesday morning, and Leah called for us, "Reuben's having a seizure" and Matt found her up there cradling his head in her lap. So he called for me to come with the camera. ;) I much preferred seeing this to having to take a picture of a chomped off thumb or something of that nature!

Reuben expressively showing off his "boo boo" and the big bandage we rigged to keep his thrice-bitten thumb protected today!

Sometimes it's tough

Reuben started his day at 4:45 this morning. This is not unusual for him in general, but for the last few weeks he's been sleeping in on a much more "normal" routine for the rest of us, often not waking until the 6am hour. This morning he dozed on and off, and around 6 came into our bed where he never really slept, but just lay rather restlessly beside me. At 6:30 his body lifted slightly as a classic tonic/clonic seizure (what used to be called "grand mal") started. Because he was semi-awake, he had his thumb still in his mouth.

You really do get somewhat desensitized to seizures after you've seen your son have, by now, hundreds of them. It's just part of life. But then there are days, like this morning, when it's really, really tough to watch your child go through something like that. Seeing his beautiful little face with the eyes pulled wide open by the seizure, his body tense, and his heart racing, and his little thumb in the death grip of those clenched teeth just hit me hard. My mind flashed back to the days after he was born (I have newborn babies on my mind for obvious reasons).

 

We had no idea back then what his future had in store for him (though who ever really does for any of their children?) We had no idea to believe he was anything but a "regular" little boy - no idea that every cell in his tiny body was coded differently at the chromosomal level. As I watched the seizure grip him this morning it brought me to tears as I realized how all of the regular hopes and dreams that parents have for their children are just not there for Reuben. My dreams for him instead are that some day I can let him go outside without direct supervision and not worry about him wandering away. Or that he may have more than 30 "words" in his vocabulary so I might get a glimpse inside of his little head, which in so many ways we know has a whole lot more going on in it that we're able to see. Thoughts of marriage, or grandchildren, or proud accomplishments of any notable (to others) variety are simply not part of the picture we expect.

I realized this morning the fierceness with which I desire above all else one thing for him - that he would know Jesus, and find his delight in Him and trust his life to Him. And once again I find myself yearning for heaven where this pain will no longer be part of his life.

Some days it's really tough watching your child suffer in this way. As I write this 16 hours later, he's had five more tonic/clonic seizures and four complex partial seizures. It's been a rough day for him. Three times now he's had his thumb stuck between his teeth during a tonic/clonic seizure, and now it's cut and has been bleeding. He's woken at least every half hour since going to bed three hours ago - though only five of those awakenings were seizures.

These days are tough and yet still full of the goodness of God on a deeper level than just little every day blessings. (Not to minimize those aspects of his goodness, by any means, but some things are buried deeper and less obvious!)

Our lives have changed since Reuben. And I can't ever bring myself to say that I wish my life still was the way it was "before." Because I can tell that God is using this pain to shape me, to shape Matt, to shape our other children, and to shape Reuben. There are so many opportunities to talk with Reuben about how big and strong God is when we are small and weak. And he gets small and weak. There are so many chances to talk with Reuben about how God is always with him - when he is scared (his complex partial seizures include fear-centered hallucinations), when he is alone (it takes me or Matt time to run up the stairs to his room when we see seizure activity on the video monitor, so we aren't always there with him the whole time) - but God is with him all the time. God doesn't need a camera. He is there. 

And I know, too, that Reuben's being "not normal" was a key piece for both Matt and me in different ways to bring us to the place where we were excited to embrace Krassimir as part of our family. I don't know that that's where we would have ended up had God not prepared us through giving us Reuben.

I sure love that dear little boy.

Fireplace box is in!

In between getting back from our trip to my parents' ...

According to some sources, we are still a "mini" family because we fit in a "mini"van. A few more weeks will change that. ;)

(Not all parts of the trip were this much fun...but some were! It's a long five hour drive. Plus lunch and potty breaks.)

... and today (Monday), Matt found some time to get out and tape and mud the sheetrock in the fireplace cavity so it meets the requirements.

As usual, he's got his construction buddy out there with him. (Got to love how Dad's in a short-sleeve shirt and Reuben's wearing his winter coat. Proper attire was probably somewhere in between!)

Then, today, the fireplace got installed!!! YAY!! Progress! Yes, there are still a few more steps - Matt's got to get the DurRock (fireproof panel) installed over the front, and the mechanical guys have to come and hook up the gas, and then the fireplace guys have to come back again to do the final trim pieces, but I still consider this a significant step.

I'm going to brag on Matt just a bit here - every contractor who's been in the house doing the little bits that we're hiring out has commented on how very well done the work is. Today they got a kick out of how the base that the fireplace sits on (which will all be covered up) is done with tongue and groove pine. ;) Matt did this instead of rough plywood simply because we had some leftover tongue and groove boards from another project, and it made more sense to use that than to buy something new, but it's still kind of fun to know that someday we'll know that buried behind the fireplace wall is a beautiful tongue and groove floor. ;)

Something new

Krassi got to try something new yesterday. We're in WI visiting my parents, and a family from their church (who have been part of bringing Krassi home in a variety of ways) invited us to come as guests to their YMCA and go swimming. Reuben, of course, was delighted - he's always been into water. Owen and Leah both as infants were not so into their bath time, but Reuben loved his from the very first one, and there's been no turning back. Krassi loves his bath time, but it was neat to think of taking this nine and a half year old boy somewhere where he could try a swimming pool for the first time. Wow.

Knowing that getting chilly would be an issue for him, we picked up a swim shirt to give him a little boost.

Going in for the first time with Daddy.

 Although he loves baths, this was a little different! He was not particularly distressed, but also didn't really seem to be enjoying himself. ;) Leah's opinion is that it was loud, there were many people, and there was a LOT going on!

First time going down into the water.

He's got his hands up in his "guarded" position, but beyond that seemed to trust that Daddy had him.

Still not super relaxed! (Unlike his sisters - even Rinnah was perfectly content to have our friend helping her "swim" despite the fact that she's only met him once or twice and probably over a year ago.)

I'm not much into swimming, so I made it my job to sit and watch and take pictures and be ready to hold Krassi when he was done. 

I wrapped him up in towels and held him as close as I could until he warmed up. Daddy took him in for a brief second attempt, but he got chilled pretty quickly the second time, so he and I just watched.

Krassi's physical therapist has talked about wanting to do PT in the pool with Krassi as it both eases weight bearing and also slows down the effects of gravity. We're excited about this as a possibility for him, but know that we're going to need to look into swim attire that will keep him a little bit warmer until he puts on some more of his own body fat!

Playing in the "Buh-dition"

With some heat out there, the addition is becoming a destination when the kids are looking for something to do. There are still a few bundles of the cellulose insulation hanging around (starter for when Matt gets to doing the walls - the first run was just to get the ceiling done). It's like having life-size building blocks - they make forts, or climbing towers, (or "squatty potties" inspired by Dondi's experience on the trip back from Pleven to Sofia when we picked up Krassi).

Rinnah's not in the photo above because she was napping on that particular afternoon, but she's just as excited about being out in the "buh-dition" as any of the rest of them. ;)

Visual progress

Matt had two days to put in some work last week and was able to push a few things forward that have more visual impact than plumbing or wiring. ;) Most exciting is the framing at the fireplace area to prepare for installation of the unit next Monday. Matt enjoys framing (after all, it IS the most instantly rewarding part of any construction project, as you go from nothing to something!), so it was good for him to have this to do since for time and size reasons we hired someone to do the framing of the main structure of the house.

 As usual, Reuben was anxious for any opportunity to help Daddy "bum bum" and was happy to spend some time helping him.

(Reuben just walked past the computer as I'm working on this, and commented, "Bum bum! Daddy!")

 We're still having issues with the upper level radiant heat (installed under the subfloor instead of in the concrete slabs) making a lot of noise when the water cycles - those tubes expand and contract a LOT and they squeak when they do! On this particular day Matt was experimenting with raising the temperature so the difference between the target temp and the water temp wasn't so high, so the addition was nice and warm, and the floors were quite lovely for being on. This meant that Krassi and I were able to spend some time out watching them work! Notice that I'm just in socks, because even though it's still dusty out there, the warm floor feels SO GOOD on sock feet that it seemed a waste to slip my shoes on!

Krassi is learning to ham for the camera. ;)

The next day, Chad had some time to come over and help Matt put the sheetrock (required for fireproofing) up inside the fireplace cavity, and together they framed up the front (roomside) wall of the fireplace. The lower rectangle on the right is where the fireplace will go, though it won't start that low or go that high - the opening just needs to be framed that size for the unit. (You can look here for the CAD drawing of the final proportions - its the very last image in the post. Please notice the optimism if you read the whole post, about how close we are to being ready to sheetrock. Hmmm. Still not there.)

And then, since they were working with sheetrock, they decided to throw up a few more pieces just for good measure.

So now the ceiling of the stair down to the entry landing...

...and the ceiling of the stair down to the basement...

...and the office (minus one narrow strip) all have sheetrock!

Then there was just enough time before Chad had to go that they were able to hang the air-to-air heat exchanger in the mechanical room (which will provide fresh air from the outside pre-heated by the inside air being exhausted and will provide air circulation within the house that happens automatically with a forced air heat system). This is doubly exciting to me because 1) now that big box is out of the existing basement!! Yay! growing pregnant belly now has more room to maneuver laundry down to the washer and back upstairs again! and 2) because it's one more thing up...and something that I'm just not capable (for height and other reasons) to help Matt lift it up into place.

Every Tuesday I hit another "week" marker in this pregnancy (32 this week), and it becomes increasingly likely that we will not be ready to have Matt's mom move in before the baby is born. For a number of weeks earlier this year, I realized that I was becoming increasingly bothered by this. About a week and a half ago I was reading the end of Daniel (of all places) and there was something about the way those last chapters describe in such a matter-of-fact way the still-future rise and fall of national powers and destruction and transitions that I was reminded freshly that God has his hand in the timing of all things, and HE can look at it all calmly. In so many ways throughout the past year and a half, God has showed us that he is intimately in control of the timing of how the plans laid out for us are progressing. Only some of those things have been shared on this blog, and there have been plenty - like the "Go" and then the gap of waiting, during which time we were able to care for Matt's dad as he lost his life to cancer. Or the rush rush rush to get Krassi's paperwork in so we could get his adoption finalized before the 6 week court break in Bulgaria, and getting that done before the break! He was ours! But then one tiny glitch in his birth certificate resulted in a long six-week additional wait before we could get him after all. It was during that time, of course, that we found out that we were expecting this Baby, and I was NOT feeling well at all until days before our new (six weeks later) travel date.

Such a little thing, but it has been SO good to have this shift from increasing concern and pressure about timing to now more just wondering what we're going to see happen here. In my mind, I still can't figure out what could possibly be good about delaying that move any longer than it's already been delayed, so I have to just decide to trust that it is. But I must admit I'm curious.

Brief on Krassi

Krassi had a followup appointment with his rehab doctors at Gillette today, and I was disappointed, but not entirely surprised, to see that his weight is down again. After our most recent peak at 33 lb, 12 ounces, he was down to 33 pounds at the ER a week ago and down to 32 lb, 10 oz today. This is still higher than the previous peak at three weeks home of 32-7, and is potentially explainable by the illness we've dealt with, but once again, not the direction we're hoping to see him go.

We are working on finding the right dance between pushing to get as much good food into him as we can, and not undermining his trust in us and our love for him (and not just our duty to put food into him) by making mealtime a time of undue stress. I'm grateful for Dondi's comment from personal experience that a g-tube is not the end of the world. That helps me keep the big picture in mind.

On a slightly lighter note, Krassi has discovered that balloons are a lot of fun to play with. This is particularly neat to see because when we brought along a balloon when we first met him last March, he was not really interested at all. This little guy is expanding his world in so many ways!

Krassi playing at home this past week

Krassi playing with us last March

January house update

I'm way behind on updating on the progress on the house. But, then again, since hardly any work happened on the addition in all of January, this post won't be all that out of date.

First of all, the good news about no work getting done on the house is that Matt has had a full load of "real" work to occupy his time. As much as it's good to make progress on the addition, doing work that he gets paid for is helpful, too. Probably the most exciting to us is that our residential design business has had a number of inquiries over the last few weeks from families who are looking to expand/modify for their families that are growing through adoption and involve children with special needs. Even though only one of these projects has materialized into real work at this point, we have found at many times in the past that God uses contacts like this (even contacts that don't "go" anywhere) as an encouragement to us - a reminder that he can make the right opportunities come at just the right time. We're actually quite grateful that we only have one larger design project on the agenda right now, because our days are very full.

And because that addition really does need to get finished. We'd been aiming for early December (2013!), then moved that out to late January, and as it stands now we're just hoping for enough to be completed that Matt's mom can move in before Baby arrives. But even there there are variables on the table that make that a potentially impossible goal.

Being out with the flu last week didn't help any, but did give me some quiet time for reflection, and I realized God was trying to tell me something - I can get so hung up on the timing and sequencing of things, and as I think back on the circumstances of the last two years, there were so many times when things would get hung up, or seem to be happening at really bad times, and yet in hindsight, we can see so clearly how every single piece of the puzzle is fitting in to where God wants it to fit when he wants it to fit. It is good to be able to just sit back and know that this project will be completed no sooner and no later than he wants it to be completed.

Which is good. Tomorrow I'm officially 31 weeks along with this baby. ;) That's starting to get really close.

With that, here's what happened in January and where we are today.

1) Matt wants to hire someone to spray insulation at the rims, and also to finish the blown-in cellulose for the inner walls of the main and upper level. To get ready for this, he needed to first finish the wall insulation in the basement (fiberglass batt) and get the vapor barrier on down there.

the back corner of the basement playroom

the front corner of the basement by the large window well

Please note that this work was completely over two weeks ago. Matt's been unsuccessfully trying to get in touch with the insulator to get on their schedule. [Note to Andrea: do not fret. If God can coordinate timing on the macro scale, he can surely get the insulator here at the right time.]

2) We continued plugging away on the plumbing, finishing up dry fits on a few smaller vent runs, and then getting out the purple PVC glue again and putting it all together!

My way to help is to work through the geometrical gymnastics of how you sequence the gluing of interesting pieces like this so you don't end up with a piece you can fit in. PVC, by the way, does not bend. ;)

Gas lines and PVC fittings make great fine motor challenges. (Thanks, Reuben!)

Here's Mr. "Bum-bum, Wa-dah" hard at work with the upstairs bathroom.

Hammer in hand, he adds a few more fittings to the supply lines for the sink.

This was an exciting move - the main drain from the addition going through the plywood panel that connects the addition's mechanical room with the main house basement.

Then Matt and I got to spend an exciting evening in our [not so] glamorous basement bathroom. This is, for those of you who don't know our house, the only shower in the house. Notice the nice painted concrete block walls, and the classy fixture...even better is the painted concrete floor complete with floor drain. The towels came with the house (meaning they're probably all older than either Matt or I - possibly even put together. They just don't make towels like that anymore...) Nothing is glued here, but you've got to love how the main drain line from the addition runs conveniently right underneath the goose-neck of the shower spigot. Pretty fancy, huh?

And this was the exciting moment. In order to be able to attach the new drain line into the existing one, we had to cut out a portion of the existing. We'd debated timing on this. If we do it when the kids are awake, we don't risk waking anyone up with power tools, but we also have many distractions. Not to mention many opportunities for someone to forget and accidentally try to flush the toilet...  If we tackle the project at night, there are no risks of that sort of surprise, but making noise is always something to avoid with a houseful of five young children. We opted for the risk of noise, and even though Matt's first attempts to cut out the old pipe with a handsaw were ineffective and he had to get out the sawzall, we managed to get it all done without anyone waking up because of it. Phew.

3) All the supply lines are connected and capped. All the drain and vent lines are done. Next step is to test it out...

What you're seeing here is WATER coming out of the supply line for the upstairs bathtub!! And it worked! No leaks in the supply lines, no leaks in the drain line!!! Yay!!!

And, with that, Matt was able to schedule, and pass, our rough-in plumbing inspection!!

4) As rookies, we're learning that radiant systems that are not embedded in concrete are NOISY!!! Every time hot water from the boiler cycles through those water tubes, they expand like crazy, and creak and squeak and shift, and it sounds like quite the meteorological event. Not okay. Some quick research gave Matt a few ideas for minimizing the noise (some adjustments at the boiler, some adjustments of where he had the clips for securing the tubes), but my favorite part is his idea for a level of craftsmanship that I'm guessing very few houses have.

See the tan rectangles? Those are scraps of fleece fabric from my leftover scraps that Matt has stapled to the subfloor around the ends of the tube runs so that as they expand and contract they can slide without rubbing against the rigid insulation he's installing under the tubes to keep the heat going up instead of filling the joist cavity.

And again, every time the tubes go through the joists and have the potential to rub both against each other and against the web of the joist, he has carefully wrapped more strips of fleece fabric around the tubes to cushion the rubbing. I would have to guess there are not too many houses that have this kind of construction detail! But the sound is definitely reduced to what is now a very acceptable level.

With a little help from Owen to run the rigid insulation through the table saw (and from Reuben to play with the scraps)...

...he's now got most of the joist spaces filled.

And that's about where we're at. There are a few exciting things coming up - the fireplace is set to be installed on the 17th, and the same person from our church who helped with the sheetrock on the upper level ceilings is planning to help Matt with more sheetrock at the end of February, but it still feels like we're at a "so close, and yet so far" stage of the work. We "just" need to get sheetrock up, taped and mudded, flooring in, tile in, bathroom fixtures in, trim and doors in, painting done, light fixtures and wall plates in, and then the upstairs will be ready. Anyone want to make a guess at when all this will really get done? Maybe I shouldn't ask... ;)

Because I already know. It will be done when He wants it to be done. And not a day sooner. Or later. Thankfully.