20th WEEK SONOGRAM

Today we had our 20th week sonogram. Luckily Kumquat-may (a new name endowed by my uncle Rick) has two legs, two arms and four chambers in her/his heart. S/he is bout 5-7 inches long and weighs in at about 12 oun
ces - or about the size of an avocado. I think s/he didn't like the poking and prodding of the sonogram because s/he kept giving uppercut punches to my uterus in reaction. (Un)Fortunately I don't feel anything. Sorry Kumquat! His/Her mouth also opened and closed which the woman told us was Kumquat-may drinking fluid and her/his own pee. yum.

I liked seeing the profile with his/her little fists the most. I didn't like seeing the face which looks like skeletor. Carlos likes the little feet and the one where Kumquat seems to be sucking a thumb.

We had the woman write down the sex and put in an enveloped to be unveiled on monday (our 1st wedding anniversary). I did see some large thing protruding and when I raised my eyebrows in shock the woman smiled and said it was just the umbilical cord....

Oh yeah, and of course Carlos rushed in panting, in his ghetto construction outfit just as we were finishing. Luckily, the woman was nice enough to start over and give him a tour of my uterus.

NEW VS. OLD

Nathan, Soogy and baby Wallis are in DC for the long weekend and got a tour of the construction. We didn't have a hard hat for Baby Wallis so she had to sit out on the tour.

Carlos got up early yesterday, rented a UHAUL, drove into the depths of Virginia and bought $2000 worth of lumber...only to find out the lumber didn't fit into the the truck. He had to convince the lumber store to deliver despite the fact that they don't deliver...Here are some shots of old and new framing.

NEW FACADE

Two weeks ago the house facade came down and now a rough facade is back up. And it's taller than before...and - taller than our neighbors'..heehee. We are trying to decide on the height now of the facade in order to hide the planned rooftop deck. DC has a rule that states that in historic neighborhood one should not be able to see a rooftop deck from the sidewalk.

This photo from week 18 is advertising the competition: Kumquat versus House II.

DEMO MAN

Most days begin with Carlos dialing: beep beep beep - beep beep beep beep..."Can you connect me to the pro desk?" That's Carlos talking to Home Depot Pro Desk every morning at what seems absurdly early as I put pillow after pillow over my head. I'm now 4.5 months pregnant and I tell myself that I need all the sleep that I can get. While I was sleeping Carlos demolished the burned part of the house....and then the rest...Here's some shots of the demolition and the resulting hole.

HOUSE II vs. KUMQUAT...Round I

We fondly refer to Carlos' new project as House II. House II is located in the South East of Capitol Hill - one block from the metro, the capitol and the republican club! The earliest records we could find of the house date back to 1864 when it was owned by Mary A. and Charles O. Moore. He was a brick layer and when he passed away she turned the house into a boarding house. Not much work was done on the house after she left - or at least not according to official permit records. In 2006 the house was inhabited by young renters - most likely staffers from the Hill - and a fire broke out, caused by an iron left on. The fire burned much of the house, leaving little but an eyesore up for sale.

Carlos was intrigued by the idea of putting all the knowledge he had gained from our trial-and-mostly-error first renovation to use and it was before they cut the cord on sub-prime mortgages. It was meant to be....or it so it seemed to him. I looked at the burned out structure and saw impending doom and my dream of having a beach house fade away into the distant future. My aunt Mary chided me using a George Bernard Shaw quote: "You see things and say 'why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'why not?'"

I guess we'll see if it turns into bankruptcy or a beautiful home for Carlos, Me and the impeding Kumquat. The house has been all consuming for Carlos and so I decided to race him - can he birth a house quicker than I can birth Kumquat? We shall see. The winner gets an all expense paid trip to Paris (or something). In the meantime, we'll try to compile some of the adventures here of House II and the advent of Kumquat.