Miata repair and paint job

My car was hit twice while parked outside and no amount of wax would buff this dent out. Luck would have it so it was the same front fender being hit each time but I think the attachment points underneath was moved a millimeter or two.. 

The worst part was how the fender made cuts into my tire as I drove, and it was a terrible sound! Also since the paint on this car is so bad after many years in the hyper bright California sun and parking on San Francisco streets I decided to give it new paint also. 

Here is the new front fender, in black primer which is very thin so I decided to give it an extra layer of primer before mounting it.

Front lamps was damaged by flying debris or a rock at some point and was full of water and dust.

Front bumper assembly had to be loosened in order to access the last bolt holding the front fender in place.

Front fender is off!

New fender is on!

Mattias came out to help me with the doors. He helped me remove the mirrors and the door handles, but first he had to remove the inside door panels. Not pain free! He also helped me remove lights and was kind to collect all parts in labeled plastic bags. He is pretty awesome!

You may also notice in this picture that the lower part of the car is white-ish. Thats because while the replacement fender is completely smooth, the car's original paint has a very bumpy orange peel looking paint on the lower part. I always hated the look of this so I decided to remove it by sanding it down. Now the whole car will be smooth when it is finished.
While initially expected to be a one weekend job, this job is has blown into a big one, it has now ballooned into its 4th or 5th week, and Im still looking at another 4-5 full days of work. Which in reality means another 3-4 weeks before it is done.
The reasons for taking so long are many. More than a few problems came up during the fender repair due to the damage to the car, so instead of taking 30-40 minutes to do the swap it took something like 6-7 hours over several days.
Going over the car more closely also revealed more problems with small dents that had to be filled and sanded as well as problems with the front bumper cover which had rotten paint that had to be completely removed. Im not sure if I was misinformed or missed an important part of the information I was given but you cant just use any type of paint remover on painted plastic parts and my result was swelling plastic..
I solved these problems but it all adds up and slows me down. This last week has also been incredibly cold (for California) and has further slowed down the process because the body filler takes much longer to cure, paint takes longer to dry, and it is just plain uncomfortable, but you can work really hard without breaking a sweat!

The Prius

Remember how the car got dinged back in '08? The picture above shows how it got hit on the rear three quarter panel and bumper, however the door was not damaged and this is where reality diverge from logic. Ever since we got the car repaired (back in '08) there has been this annoying hissing wind sound when we drive above 100kph (60mph). Really annoying when you learn to notice it. 

The body shop has been amazing to deal with. Really stellar service apart from the fact that it took three visits to figure out. They stood by their work and was super helpful each time we went back to try figure out the problem regardless of how long it was since the initial repair. Finally last week, riding in the back seat with the body shop tech driving/speeding I nailed down the problem area: rear end of the rear window where theres a small black triangular plastic cover. You can see it the picture below:. Covering it with my hand the noise went away.

The body shop removed it and found a gasket missing which brings me back to where the logic ends. As the photo shows the door was not dinged, so why was the gasket missing after being repaired? We will never know but we are happy to once again ride in a quieter car.

Settling In

We've taken our time decorating our new apartment. Wait, it's been 6 months, so maybe it's not new anymore?

Anyway.

Here are some before and after shots. We're still tweaking, but are overall very happy with the changes.

Hallway before. Note the "art" yours truly created by tracing napkin rings to try to match Lucia's baby bedding. It looks so much nicer from afar. Ahem.

Hallway after. There are some fun things mixed in there too. We're waiting to go to IKEA again to get more frames to complete it. But it's a good start.

Living Room Before. We went back and forth on what to put here. We thought about some artwork from Overstock, then a gorgeous picture of the Bay Bridge. But we just couldn't agree on what to get, and we didn't want anything that was glaring or expensive. 

We ended up stealing this idea from Young House Love (I'm too tired to link -- google Ribba Young House Love if you're interested)

Yeah yeah, we know they're crooked. But getting the colors right was a HUGE accomplishment. Originally we started out with red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, purple. It was awful. Then we tried another shade of green. Then another shade of red. Then navy instead of purple. Then I had an idea to make it a little less shouty I AM COLORFUL so I bought tan squares, and one of them is lighter than the other. And I found another green that actually has some shimmer to it. We kept the reds close to the lampshade color, and now, finally, I'm happy with it. There was an instant calm once we got those cool colors out. Phew. 

The Living Room curtains before. Cheap, cheap IKEA sheers. They were amazing at our last place. Notsomuch at the new place. Related: anyone want some IKEA sheers? 

So Nina and I found these on sale and bought em. We headed to Target for a new curtain rod too (one that didn't cost $5.99 IKEA I love you/hate you). I wanted a dark bronze; most of our furniture in here is dark wood. I also wanted white, but Nina talked me out of it; she said it would be too overwhelming. So we settled for off-white silk. Ta-da.  Also, I'm toying with the idea of dying those white pillows (IKEA linen covers) lime green. Hmm. Maybe. I'll wait for my mom to come to town to decide. 

Lucia's room before. There's an adorable pic of her and Danny but the dark wood in there just wasn't doing it for me. Her furniture is all white and with the orange rocker and giant green sofabed, it just wasn't working. 

On my zillionth trip to Michaels to get paper squares for the living room art above, I saw these letters and was psyched. 

I've wanted letters for her name for forever, but they're always so insanely overpriced. These were $2.50 each. Freaking sweet. When my mom comes to town, I'm going to buy something to frame the letters and then adhere them to a bright fabric. I have some other ideas for stuff in there, but I gotta be patient. We've also added some hello, custom artwork from the very talented friend Jenny Commins. She came to visit in March and brought that. It's so very special and adorable. 

We also got new bedroom curtains to cheer it up in there, and organized our photo wall: we had kinda haphazardly thrown pictures up on the wall. I took down all the silver framed ones and put up only the dark wood ones (our bedroom furniture is dark wood). 

I also took down some other pictures out of black and white frames and bought mats for pictures of Lucia from when she was a wee lassie. Those went in the bathroom, which is otherwise super boring decor. White waffle weave shower curtain; tan bathmats. Zzzzzzzzz. We also added a black and white of us on our wedding day. 

We're still missing art on one wall, and we're going to put a shot of the Hansens' Coffee sign in the kitchen. It's a work in progress, but we're psyched with the progress we've made. 

New stroller

The new big girl stroller is much easier to collapse, wheel around than the old stroller and is generally much liked around the house.

Heather Voted

The line was long, but why use a booth? If there was only a instruction/information booklet in English somewhere..

Passy Sucks

Lucia's relationship with her beloved passy has become increasingly "passionate". We think it is about time for her to let go. I figured it was time for her to do this when she started "preferring" the blue passy over any of the others, just based on color. Now if she could only get on the potty first.

Finally online again!

We have been siphoning off Whole Food's wireless network for a while which has been slow and intermittent. Today a repair man from AT&T hooked the building onto their network again since the cables got cut some time before we moved in. (!)
He was also very kind to fix the outlets inside for free, they had been painted over and rendered useless in several other ways.

As Heather mentioned in the previous post, the carpets have been a disaster. They are brand new so they have that VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) related new-carpet-stink, but they also give us dirty feet.

Check out this photo on the right, it shows one washed foot and one that has been walking around for two hours inside the apartment..
I worry about the fumes from the carpets the most since my throat is constantly sore and I am worried that Lucia may be harmed also, she play all day so close to the carpets, but I take comfort in the fact that the landlord has been very responsive and I believe the matter will be solved within a week or two. I am also happy we got an air cleaner today with an active coal filter and an HEPA filter. It seems to work pretty well, it took most of the VOC stink out of Lucia's room – in addition to that other stink.

The apartment is still a mess, but we keep emptying boxes so we should be done soon. We even made dinner here for the first time today!

First tooth on the way

Just a little hint at this point, but put your finger and and it is really sharp. Nevermind the bumps and scratches in her face, she is fearless, unfortunately.

Our Last Pregnancy Video

Notes about this:

1. Yes, I am that fat. I really am. Can you believe it? It's almost hilarious. Who knew my body could get this big? Rest assured, I haven't let myself go -- the doc says it's cause of the diabetes and that most of it is water. Thank god! Even my elbows look fat! I'm looking forward to getting back down to a reasonable size.
2. We called at 6 p.m. as instructed, and labor and delivery said they were really busy, so we should call back at 7 p.m. We called at 7 p.m. and they said call back at 8 p.m. We're hoping this doesn't continue for another few hours. Gawd help us. We're packed and ready to go.

The Day (So Far) in Pictures!

I didn't get much rest, so I'm running around like a crazy woman this morning, in anticipation of crashing fairly soon for a loooong nap. Here's how the day is going so far:

Mrs. B's birthday is tomorrow, as you might know. She'll be 12. She gets Frosty Paws on her birthday, which is dog ice cream. She loves and wags her tail like crazy when you ask her if she wants Frosty Paws.


These muffins have no added sugar, and are DELISH. Highly recommend (available at Trader Joe's).



I have this magazine and Vanity Fair (my favorite) to read tonight at the hospital. Along with the fully charged ipod, and possibly some movies to watch on the computer.




Organizing the hospital bags: on the left is the cooler weather outfit for LG. On the right is the warmer weather option: a T-shirt, with the hat, booties (thanks Robin!) and mittens and swaddle blanket. The bunny is for comfort <--- for me mostly. :) We're bringing diapers because we really want to stick with the ones that are unbleached.

Ouch. This is what happens when you're sleep deprived/distracted and trying to park quickly. I initially thought this was just a scrape. Then I inspected it last night and was more bummed about it. I'm heading over to the body shop shortly to get an estimate (and to see how long it will take, so we can plan in the next few weeks to take it in).

The Finishing Touches

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I would have posted earlier today, but it's been super busy, and then I wasn't feeling well tonight. We thought (again) it might be early labor, but alas, we don't think it is/was. I think we're both thankful we only have 45 hours left!

My blood pressure was fine today. I also had a non-stress test for the baby, which is basically a fetal heart rate monitor hooked up to my belly, and a belt across me to look at my uterine contractions (there weren't any). LG was very quiet this morning (after a very busy night), so I was a little worried going in. But as soon as they hooked me up, I could hear her little heart beat thump thump thump thump and felt better. After 20 minutes of monitoring, the nurse said, "she's really active." I said, "No, this is a quiet day." Like I was making it up all this time -- the kid is SPAZZY, ok?

We borrowed a GORGEOUS bassinet from our friend Sara today (see above) so LG can sleep right next to me for the first few months. We hear this is critical to maximizing sleep and success at breastfeeding. Today I also bought some night lights at Ikea so we won't have to turn on the light to see LG in the middle of the night.

Tomorrow's big tasks: laundry and organizing the hospital bags: pre-delivery and post-delivery (great suggestion Kate B!). And cleaning up/organizing the baby room/guest room a bit more. Return blood pressure cuff to Wal-Mart. Make a few phone calls. Try to relax. :)

Two Freestyles!

Sweet! I got two products named Freestyle today. One is the Medela Freestyle breast pump, which finally arrived and I am most excited about. We spent a little more to get the one that has all the bells and whistles, and the actual pump can be held in your hand. So tiny! So many cool features! This is important when I return to work and will be pumping several times a day. (Side note: I just noticed it just went on sale at the place I bought it. Now I have to wrestle $20 off the price I paid-- arggggh).

The other Freestyle is the blood glucose meter, from my adorable cousin Kammy, who unfortunately has type 1 diabetes. She's a trooper for sure and upon hearing that my insurance didn't cover the Freestyle meter, sent me an extra she had, plus lancets, plus a zillion test strips. Why it's different: rather than jabbing myself in the finger (and trust me, at four times a day THAT is getting old), I can prick my arm and it takes a teeny teeny teeny amount of blood -- the size of a pinhead -- to test. Less blood = less owie.

Hooray for products named Freestyle!

The Missing Things

Dangit. We have three things missing in our apartment and well, it's driving me crazy. I suppose you could argue that crazier is a more accurate description, and you might be right.

Somehow on Monday night I had the list of who gave us what at our shower, and wrote some of the thank-you notes until I ran out. Now I can't find the list anywhere. I've narrowed down the gifts to mostly everyone, but am hoping for the others -- in order for them to get their thank-yous quickly -- that I can just write thank you for the baby clothes. I'm positive that's what they got us; I just can't remember for one person exactly which outfit they got us.

Next up: our wedding print, the Vanity Fair shot. You know the one. We have a 11x14 display print of it, all carefully tucked away to not get damaged. And we're not sure where it is. And we'd like to frame it before LG gets here.

The last thing is an adorable baby gift that I'd really like to use as soon as LG gets here. I'm positive it's not in the humongous bag of clothes for her, since I know that part of it was a duplicate gift (which we don't mind at all). I suspect it's still wrapped, but can't seem to find it.

Dangit. Even though I'm not Catholic, I might have to pray to St. Anthony. Somehow that always works.

Weekend PREview

Well, the weekend preview is looking fairly blank. We don't have a lot planned, besides chores and errands and stuff. We sat down Monday or Tuesday this week and wrote out a list of everything that needs to get done before the baby arrives. Some of the items I'm hoping we can tackle this weekend; as the pregnancy wears on my energy level seems to be um, decreasing. :)

• We had our next-to-last session with our financial planner this week, and have some homework to do by Wednesday, so there's that.
• We're finishing the entertainment center stain and though it has historically taken about oh, two weeks to dry, I'm praying for a miracle to have it dry by Monday so I can take it to the Home Consignment Center to get it sold and off our porch. Speaking of our porch, we might work on that this weekend too; it's a mess.
• I've got to work on the wedding album; using the Blurb software. Oh, and the first wedding album too!
  
• We've got to order prints of photos of family and friends for the Wall of Love in the nursery -- a wall of pictures of people we love to bring happiness and to remember that we're loved while I'm nursing for the 87th time in the middle of the night. Oh and get all of the frames in order. And figure out if we want to hang them on the wall or put them on shelves (my vote: wall)
  

See, we have plenty to do! We'll post Sunday night with a review of our accomplishments (hopefully!!).