Our fun on Saturday

Drywall, Baby! Okay so I am the glorified screw passer girl. Poor Don. We had to put up the ceiling drywall first and it was whole sheets at a time. We built a T to help Don hold it up while I was to screw it in. Well if you look at the second picture in the far left hand corner I put in one screw. Don was holding up the drywall and putting in screws. Amazing. I'm just not that fast and I can't eye ball it. It was driving me crazy. I did do some of the wall drywalling (Don got the camera, hence the bum shots).

Tah-dah. I now have a drywalled room, lights and ac. Pretty cool, huh? This week we are planning to do some taping and muding. Hey did I mention that I helped wire in the three switches down in that picture, we are also going to wire my plethora of outlets this week I am way excited!

First pic looking from the doorway, second looking from the laundry to the right of the door. Last pic looking at the wall by the closet.

More updates on the reno

We now have the front wall of the laundry area, lights and wiring run, outlet boxes, switch boxes and bunches of more insulation (or however you spell that)!

Reno Update- from last weekend

This last weekend I did a little demo on our reno. I took out these wood shelves. Don said I was a little mean to the wood as I hit with the hammer and used the pry bar.


We also worked on installing installation and green board for behind the washer, dryer and water heater. I am getting more jobs as the reno goes on. I have now cut and installed installation and screwed in the "lid" (the ceiling dry wall) of the laundry area (I wasn't stong enough to hold it up thus I got to use the power tools). We also put up a can for the laundry light and ran some wiring. Bit by bit we are getting there. We probally could have done more, but Don HAD (no needed to) cut the lawn in the backyard. Unfortunately, he only had 1/3 done when it started to down pour. He finished and then edged the backyard. The front yard didn't make it, the poor guy was drenched to the bone by the time he was done.

This was last Saturday



This is after this Saturday, insulated and green boarded. Yeah!

Piping, Piping, Piping!

This Saturday we ( and when I saw we I mean Don while I was the runner) demoed our old plumbing and put in new copper pipes. Also we moved our water heater, put up framing and a little green board in our laundry area. This was a huge project that started in the morning, no wait Don started prepping weeks ago, but we didn't finish until 2am.

We only had two leaks and that was because in Don's prep work he didn't solder all the pipes some he just got into possession he was going to finish all the soldering at once. Well one of the cold water and one of the hot water lines got missed. My husband amazed me as he quickly turned off the water, dried the lines, put some bread (yes, bread) in the lines to soak up moisture and soldered them. Yeah another point done in the basement reno!

Here are our old pipes the grayish ones, boy those ones had some nasty build up in them, and here our new pipes the lovely copper.

Here is the before water heater with pipes coming from the ceiling in a kind of PVC fashion. Notice no framing on the wall behind it. Then our new plumbing and framing. Don put up green board where the piping will be coming in through the wall, actually there will be green board on this whole wall, and insulation and lighting, but that is another Saturday.

My handy man- updates and repairs

Okay, so two Fridays ago I was bringing in the groceries and when I closed the garage door the stroller was in the way and the sensor didn't stop it which adds up to a bent garage door. I thought for sure that Don was going to kill me, we had just replaced the door less than a year ago. I called up his work crying and apologizing, he didn't think that it was a big deal. In fact he thought that it was better the stroller than a child being crushed. He spent two Saturdays ago replacing the garage door. Putting in a new top panel (now we have three more panels in case anything goes arye), a new motor, and sensor lights. So now no harm can come to the door or any of us for that matter.

This Saturday, part of Don's time was preparing my new room for this coming Saturday day's of crazy. He put the framing for the back wall. This coming up sat. we are turning off the water, there will be sautering, dry walling and tape/mudding, insulating the works. And hopefully we will be at the next step, for that wall at least, when he is done on Saturday. I am so excited!

A new wall

Don framed the last wall for his room. Please excuse the mess. All of long garage is now being pushed into our new small garage area. We totally need to organize, but first thing first. Just keeping you updated. Have I said that I am excited about this.

I love Saturday mornings

I love these pictures. It shows our weekend. Usually I try to clean up and straighten everything. But I took it slow on Saturday and just enjoyed my family. The first picture shows the chairs surrounding the daddy project that we so intently watched. There is a puzzle that I mostly worked on that the kids would come and help here and there. There is also my book on the table that I finished reading that morning and a box that some computer parts came in that Don put in the computer that we got from some friends and we just added a couple of things (we have been blessed).

The second picture is of my bathroom. No I am not trying to show the uncleanliness, but the left over of a fun day in the sun and water with friends and again a project that Don did to help the house. The afternoon of my Saturday got a bit more crazy, but we had fun bonding time in the morning. I love Saturday mornings.

'I've been working on the basement, all the live long day'

Don has been working on the basement renovation. This past week he has been changing our piping over and moving is. This last Saturday he did more framing. He worked from morning until after 9 pm. He was a little sore when he was done, but he made a ton of progress. I think he only stopped because we ran out of wood. (I only let him get x amount, because we didn't know how much he would get done and I didn't want any of the wood to bow). I think we will be done by Christmas, Don thinks the end of summer. We shall see.

Before: After:

Before: After:

Ugly, begone!

We have this big ugly AC unit in our dining room. We knew we would take it our eventually.
Demo day was this Saturday. Josh sat and watched the whole process. He thought that his was so AWESOME! He was amazed by the hole. He looked out and said, "Mom, I can see your garden.". This was an entertainment for the whole family and now I don't have a big ugly unit in my dining room. Yeah! It's not totally done yet, due to the mudding needing to dry for 24 hours and Don's going to go over it 2 more times. I can't wait. I love having a handy man.

The taxman finally pays up.

We finally got our tax money yeah! Don't even think of borrowing any. It all has been assigned to different things with very tight budgets. We can finally start the renovations in the basements. I can't wait. We made the rounds on Saturday; Home Depot and Lowes, Walmart and mom treated all with Sonic shakes, BOGO!

The kids were having fun riding the cart. I love the look on Josh's face, it says it all.

This Saturday's House Projects

Now what are we looking at? Don widened the attic space and put some plywood up there, so now we can put our Rubbermaid storage stuff up there and declutter another spot, Yeah! It was super hot in the attic so kudos to Don. He also thought, hey I have the extra materials I will pull out the ugly, we-don't-use-anyways radiators, that were in our bathroom and the kids' bathroom. I know that this is still kinda ugly, but I refuse to buy a couple of tiles to fix this when we just want to gut the room anyways. Now at least it is sealing up the house and helping that insey-binsey bit more on the electric bill.

Projects and punishments

Don has started to run new pipe in the basement, to get ready for enclosing another section. He only got to do some, because we ran out of money. Same goes for the framing. I must say that he did it faster than I thought he could.

One day Don and I were actually punishing the kids. They had gone out front without asking permission first. To some of you, you might think big deal. You would change your mind if you saw how fast people drive on our street that is a 35 mile an hour road. So after talking until we were blue in the face, I suggested they go in the backyard and pick up sticks, rocks that they had put through out the lawn, etc. Don and I did a project too. We cleared off the many many planters that were on out porch. Hung some of the hanging baskets and put some pots on our front porch. Now to get plants for all of them.

As for the children and there punishment, I don't think it sunk in. The next Monday, Josh was playing in the backyard, I was out front by our neighbors hanging laundry (I wanted to try it, I had never done it before) I came back in through the garage. A little while later, I went back up stairs and saw a little boy running up to my door. I thought that's odd. It was Josh! He wanted to go say hi to our neighbor and he didn't go through the front door, so he thought it was okay. Argghhh.

Our Living room is like an onion, it happens in layers

Well we have come a long way in our living room. We are getting closer to the end, but I thought I'd take you on the journey.

We start at the beginning. With our green and brown paint and the one light in the entry.

















Then we painted and installed more lights.










Then we put in crown molding.










Next came a chair rail and a different color paint.










This last weekend we added curtains.
I love watching it change and come together!

Oh, your mistaken!

Now this might look like an ugly part of our garage, but you are mistaken. It is our brand new HVAC system that Don installed ALLLL day on Saturday. He promises me our power bill will be cut in half. Please let him be right!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we had our big meal. It was tradition for my family to go to Tu-tu's and Pops house for Christmas Eve. We'd eat a big meal and open presents. I wanted to keep the tradition to have a Christmasy meal Christmas Eve. After we ate and the boys did the dishes. I got Holly and Josh ready as Mary and Joesph. We wrapped a baby doll to be Jesus. Grandma, Grandpa and I were all the other parts. Don read the Christmas Story and we all acted it out. The kids loved it and I loved watching them. (I could kick myself for not getting a picture of them dressed up). We quickly put out cookies and milk for Santa, but ended on a spiritual note with a Christmas Family prayer.

Holly wanted to take baby Jesus to bed with her. I put our manager (a short laundry basket with a pillow in it) and the wrapped baby Jesus and put it between their beds.

Holly still talks about being Mary.

Living room lighting-update

Here is Don fixing our living room over-head lighting situation. There was one light in the entry way area before (see green picture of before). Don installed a similar light on the other side and a ceiling fan in between the two in the living room (see 3rd picture) The last picture is of the room I couldn't get all the lights in. Crown molding is coming next.