Staples

We have to pull out the staples before we can tile or put down new wood flooring. It sounds simple. It actually is simple to do. But there are so many. I usually work for 30 minutes to an hour after the kids go to bed. I do this a few times a week. (They have gotten used to the loud creak the staples make.) I have gotten almost all of the kitchen, but I need to get the hall, bathroom, closet, mud room, and laundry room finished soon. So the other night I tackled the hall, bathroom, and closet. This time I did it after dinner with some help. (Husband was pulling up carpet staples in the dining room. Much less exciting.)

As usual, Colin was my helper. The kid loves to help out with any type of work around the house, as long as it is not cleaning. He took a few tries, but started getting up staples.

So proud, he wanted me to take a picture of his staple.

All those black dots? Staples. (I think a few are reflecting the flash.) There are a couple hundred in this picture.

Hopefully a better picture.

About 40 minutes later!

Colin said that daddy and I did such a great job that we get stickers. (The kids were playing teacher in the basement while we worked.)

The taping and sanding is being finished today, so we get to start painting this weekend. We also are going to tile the mud room, laundry, and bathroom floors soon. The week after Thanksgiving the floor should* go in!

* better

Kitchen Update - We have walls!

This week dry wall went up! The mud and tape will be started Thursday, and hopefully finished by this weekend so we can start to paint. When we signed up to do painting to save money, we didn't realize that included the ceiling. Soooooo....... we got that going for us.

I have some ideas for the colors. We need to paint the kitchen, dining room, mud room, and bathroom. And ceiling, but only in the kitchen and mud room. We also need to tile the mud room and bathroom. Good thing we have 2.5 weeks until the flooring goes in. And then cabinets!

As for what we have been doing, we have spent the last 10 days getting -  the bathroom - vanity, toilet, lights, tile, mirror; the mud room tile; kitchen - lights, oven, microwave, stove, hood, back splash, and finally chose the counter top. I think that is it.

Here are the pictures of walls!

Bathroom.

Amazingly, we were able to keep the stove, sink, and dishwasher through this phase. So we are still able to cook!

Pantry is on the left. Door to mud room in the back.

Looking toward the family room.

This is not what we originally planned. We were going to have this area open with a flat ceiling, but it was too open for Kevin. So we have the sides built, but took out the soffit between them.

There is also a wall in the mud room!

Looking from the kitchen, through the mud room, into the dining room.

This is the new view from the garage into the mud/laundry room. Saturday night Kevin decided he wanted to have doors to block the view of the washer and dryer. We needed to OK from our contractor, so Sunday night he built this! It had to be done by Monday morning to get drywall.

Dining room. No change.

Kevin's Birthday

On Sunday Kevin turned 36! It was a busy day as K3 had a soccer game, we had shopping we needed to do for the remodel, and Gwyn, Colin and I had a birthday parry for my cousin. But it turned about to be fun.

We started with a miracle breakfast. I call is that because Kevin was able to make biscuits and eggs in this kitchen.

And the food was not covered in dust!

 Then he was given one of his gifts from the kids. They worked on it while he was at a conference last week. The kids really had fun with it, and wrote great answers.

I love that he said daddy's favorite show is "our show."

Worth noting: Gwyn said "Daddy and I are different because... I am smarter than him and he is bigger than me."

 Then off to soccer, parties, shopping, and dinner at Kevin's parents. He wanted meat loaf and mashed potatoes for dinner!

Kitchen Update - Is this week 3 or 4?

It is too soon for me to be this lost.

I am so happy with the progress. It hasn't been completely smooth. Our plumber said this is a difficult job, and I can see why with the leaks and plumbing that we already knew about before the walls came down. I don't think the electrician has had the same difficulty, but this were wired pretty strangely, maybe more weird and time-zapping than difficult. The dry wall is scheduled to go up on Monday of this week, so I am sure more pictures will come soon.

Floors and cabinets are both being delivered the week of Thanksgiving (fingers crossed). As for us, we are spending a good chunk of time buying all the things we have picked out over the last few months. Our microwave, hood, and faucet (it is AWESOME) are sitting in the garage. The oven is being delivered this week. We still have one more oven to buy. And the fridge and washer and dryer are also in the garage, but they are our old ones. Who cares about those right now? I am most excited about the back splash. You'll see.

Anyway, here are the pictures!

The bathroom. Is is smaller to make room for the pantry. And the toilet an sink are switching sides.

The can lights are in!

The pantry is framed and partially walled. You can see the new doorway to the mud room. In the background is the doorway to the dining room.

From kitchen, through mud room, into dining room.

Looking from the garage into the house. Our laundry will now be where the hallway was from the kitchen to the dining room.

Dining room. The door way has moved. You can see the drywall covering the old location. And the shadow of some creeper.

Colin's Drawings

In afternoons, before the time change, the kids were going up to the court at the top of the hill. Kevin and Gwyn would ride bikes while Colin would draw. He is so proud of his drawings and I can understand why! They are awesome!

This is his farm. There is a barn with a farmer and scarecrow, some corn, pigs in a pen, pumpkins, a horse and cow, and some grass.

A few days later, he drew Santa, and a house with Christmas lights on it.

So this is still happening.

Every now and then I snap a picture of the two of them sleeping together.

When Kevin was out of town last week, I had all 3 kids sleep in bed with me. They were so stinking cute. Loud, and tossed and turned enough to wake me up numerous times each night. But adorable. I loved it. And so did they. I found out that Gwyn grinds her teeth at night. She slept next to me twice, and that girl does not share a bed well. So when Colin spelt next to me on the third and last night, he woke up and excitedly asked me if he was good to sleep next to. And he was wonderful. He gave me plenty of room. And even though Gwyn snuggled with me most of the night, Colin still snuggled some. (Kevin wanted to sleep next to me the last night, but he graciously offered the spot to Colin. Seriously, the kid is a better person than most adults I know.)

Kitchen Update Week 2

Here are some pictures from earlier this week. It may not look like a lot, but the work is all electrical and plumbing this week. I see it all!

We (Kevin) has to saw this cabinet in half to get it out. The cabinets were just wedged in there too tight to get them out in one piece.

We had the dumpster for one week, and we never imagined we would have filled it. Since we had the opportunity, we cleaned out some junk out of the house. (That chair had been broken since Colin was 3 and fell backward in it. Why did we still have it??)

The awkward step is gone! I am so happy.

This is going to be the new pantry. We don't need as much space as the old one.

Looking from the kitchen through the old pantry, into the mud/laundry room.

Waling straight forward, this is from the mud.laundry room into the dining room. The opening is moving from the left to the right.

The bathroom is being made smaller to make room for the pantry. (I never liked the shape of this bathroom. So I am happy it is changing!)

The kitchen. We still have a stove top, but we don't know for how long.

We ripped up the rest of the wood floors in the entryway, and all the carpet except in the family room. We left some scraps to walk on, like in this room. It allows the kids to get ready in the morning and not worry about shoes. (Those black spider webs are remnants from our Halloween decorations.)

This is our current family room. It is storing our pantry items, our dishes (which are now moved over by the table), our microwave, our catch-all drawers that we don't really want to pack up, our large dry erase board, lunch boxes, tupperware, some cooking supplies, and so. much. more.

Halloween 2015

I don't have a lot of pictures from Halloween. (I only have 3 total.) But I do have costumes.

Colin was a ninja (again), Kevin was Hawkeye, and Gwyn was Elsa. The weather was amazing. The kids just wore two t-shirts under the costumes, and they were fine! It drizzled a bit for the first 30 minutes, but we didn't even need an umbrella. And Gwyn actually trick-or-treated! Last year she was bored after our street. This year she was about for almost 2 hours!

Gwyn and Colin walked around with DTG and me, while Kevin walked around the neighborhood with friends and their moms. (We ran into them only one time.) After a candy drop-off, Colin went back out with daddy. All the kids had a great time. And our neighborhood use to have so few kids out, but over the past three years, more and more young families have moved in. It is nice to see so many people walking around. (Although they still avoid our street. We barely get any kids knocking on the door.)

Both Colin and Gwyneth froze up when it came time for jokes until the end of the evening. Then they heard jokes they liked and started talking. Colin's favorite was "What do you call a witch on the beach? A sandwich." Gwyn heard a Frozen jokes and is still telling people. "Why should you never give Elsa a balloon? Because she will LET IT GO! LET IT GO!" And then she gets to sing.

Oh yea, Gwyn also wore her Batman cat ears all night.