One More Week to Go

THE New Family should be closing on their new house in one week if everything goes according to plan. They should have been able to close today but cannot because of some issues the lender raised.

The house was tested for radon. Radon is the number one cause of lung cancer in non-smokers. While radon is not a new problem, the magnitude of it as a health risk has only become clear in the last few years because the research had not been done.

The EPA states that levels above 4 picocuries per liter pose an imminent hazard to health. The home tested at 20.2 pCi/l. Dad negotiated with seller to install a mitigation system. Lender wants confirmation that the system installed is doing its job. But waiting on the retest forced the closing to get set back one week.

Hopefully the test will come back below 4 pCi/l and Dad can submit the results to the lender for approval.

Anyway, in the meantime Dad gets to look at pictures of, hopefully soon to be, his mitigation system.

Radon is a naturally occurring gas that can seep into homes from the surrounding ground. Mitigation, preventing it from entering, involves sealing up entry points like sump wells (pictured above) and foundation cracks. 

Active mitigation involves removing the gas from below the basement slab (think of a vacuum cleaner). A core hole is drilled, pvc piping is inserted, and a fan sucks the gas out creating negative pressure below.

The the gas is evacuated to the outside where it is released into the atmosphere. It quickly dissipates to unmeasurable levels.

Adorable!

DAD has taken to wearing a ball cap because he is too lazy to go and get his hair cut. Buggy wants to do everything she sees her Daddy do. Ergo:

Actually, she needs that rat tail chopped.

Park Fun

MOM has found some neat parks for the kids to play in while visiting the Grands in Kansas.

Teppanyaki

DAD made eggs for the kids recently using Grandma's electric range which is built into the kitchen island and provides seating on the opposite side. It reminds Dad of a teppanyaki restaurant he would have frequented in the days before children.

Girls Play Dress Up

THE bear was a gift given to Grandma from Dad many many years ago. Dad is unsure of how Buggy's swimsuit and diaper wound up on it, but this is what Dad awoke to this morning.

Mom may have had a hand in the matter.

The Warehouse Store

THE New Family has a membership to PriceCo, the big box warehouse store where they can buy toilet paper by the pallet load, milk by the five gallon jug, and sometimes even the dairy cow that produces it.

Okay, that is an exaggeration, but only slightly so. The place does sell caskets.

Anyway, the Family likes to go there when they are hungry for lunch but are feeling to cheap to actually buy it or too lazy to actually make it. Samples suffice until dinner.

This time they were sampling mozzarella sticks. EJ thoroughly enjoyed his.

Replicating Patterns

TAKE a close look at this photo. Click on it to enlarge if you want to. What do you see? There is a mystery here.

One pair, two pair, three pair, four pair. Five pair? Hmm.

The practice in the New Family home is to remove shoes when entering a home. This keeps dirt contained in one area for easy clean up and prevents damage to floors. They keep their shoes near the entrance they most often use and usually on a carpet remnant or other containment surface.

Dad sees his shoes (from far left working right), Mom's shoes, EJ's shoes, and Buggy's shoes. But what is this on the far right, a tiny pair of plastic shoes from a doll? Yes that is what it they are. Liesel has a new doll and those are the doll's shoes.

The kids are growing up so fast. Every day they do something new. It is exhilarating. One day they forget to remove their shoes upon arriving home, the next day they are arranging and organizing them in size order.

The work above was largely Buggy's effort. Dad helped to stage the photo, Buggy is small and it takes a great deal of effort to move shoes, plus she doesn't have Dad's perspective, but she did the work and had the idea. She recognized the pattern, large to small. She placed her doll's shoes at the far right continuing the pattern she has learned.

She melted Dad's heart with her progress.

Killing Paper

GRANDPA invited Dad to accompany him to a friend's country property to sight in rifles for an upcoming hunting trip. It was an opportunity for Dad to put some ammunition through his own guns too, so he took Grandpa up on the offer.

Grandpa's friend Ken owns a large property suitable for shooting rifles at long distances. Above the target was set up down range at 200 + yards.

Grandpa was having a hard time seeing his black cross hairs in his scope on the black target and wanted to know if there was any way to provide some contrast. Dad had an NRA sticker he received some years back and offered to let him use it. Dad does not fail to see the irony in shooting up an NRA sticker.

Dad did not bring a rifle, so he was not shooting at long distances. Ken offered to let him shoot up bottles filled with water. Ken is a great guy. Dad really liked him. Dad placed the bottles about 9 yards away and proceeded to blast away.

Dad was happy that the hollow point ammunition he has for defensive purposes performed flawlessly. Not having a paper target though was a limitation. Dad will have to get out to an indoor range and see where the gun is shooting.

The Grand's Grand Home

THE New Family is welcome to stay with Grand Ma and Grand Pa Woodall while the Family waits to close on their new home.

The Grands live in Leawood which is distinct from Overland Park, but they share the same zip code. It is a nice area.

Public park restroom

Dad loves the brick, stone, and wood work commonly used in building construction for the area.

 Grandma bought the Twin's a pool. Mom and Dad bought them the sprinkler.

Buggy explores Grandpa's John Deere.