Making our house a home (a continuing saga)

Since just a few days after Andy first arrived home, it has been day upon day of hard labor making our house the way we want it to be.  On some of his visits he was able to get small things done like changing out light fixtures or fixing small problems, but now that he is here full time he has tackled some of the larger projects, first and foremost being the pine paneling that we so despise.  

All the paneling came down from  the  entrance by the garage as well as from the two bedrooms that we made into one back during Christmas time. The paneling was just too dark for our tastes and even though there are so many windows in this house it was like the paneling was sucking up the sun and leaving us in the dark. So out it came.

 

Next up went the drywall, which is not nearly as easy as it looks on HGTV, especially when it is just myself and my husband doing the work instead of a highly trained crew of twelve to twenty people that never appear on camera. We got all the drywall up in the bedroom as well as the mudroom and the stairwell leading to the basement. Even unfinished it is so much brighter then before.

Then came the mudding and taping, which is an extremely messy job no matter how careful you try to be. Andy has only been able to complete this step partially as it is incredibly difficult to live in an area where this is being done. There is a constant layer of white dust that settles on everything from the sanding that occurs to make it smooth. I would recommend a mask and goggles to protect yourself from any of the miniscule debris that  is sure to fall on you during this process.

Finally we arrive at the stage where we are able to prime the drywall (again only in the entrance way as this is our  practice area so we don’t destroy the bedroom). This was actually much faster then any of the other steps as Andy was able to use a paint sprayer. I would totally recommend this method as opposed to manually painting with a roller. It goes much faster and the primer goes on more smooth as opposed to a roller.    To be continued…

A Day at the Air show

We had such big plans for the weekend. The air show was in town and Andy’s brother Mark was in town and we all had the weekend off so we loaded everyone up (Bob, Ann. Mark, Andy, Alex, Jack, and myself) and thought we might go and see some high flying fun down by Lake Michigan. We found a good spot and had blankets and snacks (the weather wasn’t very cooperative so it was a  little chilly). We walked around for a bit and had some cotton candy. The boys played with their Daddy and Uncle Mark running around the park we were at and swinging from trees like monkeys, but I am sad to report there was no air show that day. The clouds were too low and visibility wasn’t great. So after about two hours we left and as soon as we got home and turned on the news, they reported that the show had been cancelled. Bummer. At least it was quality family time spent together. Maybe next year air show.

Bowling

My station won a contest for some random thing or another and so we got a free bowling party out of it. Since we didn’t have a babysitter we decided that we would take the kids. I called ahead, of course, to make sure this would be okay. We had a whole lane to ourselves and the people at the bowling alley even put up the bumpers so the kids could play. I was shocked that they even had shoes that fit my little boys but they sure did. they looked so adorable.

Jack was a fantastic bowler and beat me on the first set. Even with the bumpers up I am a terrible bowler.His bowling style was to grab the ball, run up to the lane and throw it as hard as he could. It seemed to work well for him. He is, however, the first person I have ever met who was able to roll a gutter ball with the bumpers up. There is nothing this kid can’t do.

Andy helped Alex the first few times, but afterwards Alex wanted to take his turn as well as everyone else's. Alex would get the ball, run up to the lane, stop, put the ball down,  and then push it with all his might. It would take on average about two minutes for the ball to make it all the way to the end, but he certainly was able to knock more than a few pins down. I think he was a little more interested in the ball coming back up the chute rather than actually hitting pins.

You can see that in this picture the ball is almost to the very end.  The monitors actually post the mile per hour the ball goes and I think Alex may have made it up to 5 mph once. Usually it ranged between 2 and 4. Andy is a much better bowler than all of us combined. I think that being from Wisconsin, it may just be an instinct, because we haven’t been bowling since Jack was a baby.

I am admittedly a terrible bowler, but had a very good lucky streak on the second game where I bowled three strikes in a row. Probably will never happen again and now I have ruined my chances for winning the lottery as this is the most luck I’ve had in a while.  

In the end, a good time was had by all and I now know that the kids love to bowl even though the music was a bit too loud for anyone’s taste. So thank you Southwest for the great family outing and perhaps we will do it again sometime.

Working in the backyard

I have been waiting all winter long to get outside and enjoy our big backyard. We have just under an acre of fairly well manicured grass along with some trees, vegetation and a fire pit. The previous owner was a big believer in rocks both big and small and while we love the trees and rocks (in most cases) we were certainly not completely satisfied with the layout.

Before picture.

 

Andy got a new (to us) little riding lawnmower to keep our grass nice and trim. We got a new play set for the children that is not quite so elaborate as our previous one from California, but it does the job and keeps them moderately entertained.

 

The fire pit was probably one of our bigger disappointments. The previous owners (according to the neighbor lady) used to have giant pit BBQ’s and roast about 15 to 25 chickens at a time over this massive rectangular fire pit. I think that instead of cleaning the ash out after he was done he would just throw dirt on it and call it a day. First, the pit was just too big for us. Second, there was a ton of dirt and debris that was piled up underneath a big pile of dead branches that had not yet been burned. Finally, after we burned away the branches we found that when we tried to clean out the ash and debris that there was also a layer of river rocks underneath. Burning all the wood and extraneous material from the giant fire pit. Jack loved throwing the big stuff into the fire.

Alex was a little more reserved with the fire and preferred to watch from a distance.

Finally, after we burned everything down and let it cool off, Andy started moving the rocks, and by rocks I mean boulders, to create a somewhat smaller and rounder fire pit that we could enjoy.

It was no easy task moving even one of those rocks, much less around 20 of them. It was definitely a labor of love because I would have given up on rock number one. Lucky for me when he decided to start this little project, I was at work. I only came home on the tail end of it.

Although it seems like once you put a rock in place you move on, that is not quite the way my husband operates. He would place a rock then move it because he didn’t like the way it looked. he would try to put rocks together that fit kind of like a puzzle.

 I must say, though, in the end it was all worth it, because it came out looking fantastic! if you look closely you can just make out how truly dirty my husband really is. 

It took another few days of sifting through the dirt to get all the nails and metal and rocks out enough to be able to actually use the fire pit. With permit in hand we inaugurated the fire pit about a week after we finished with it by gathering up all the fallen branches from the trees after the last couple of days of thunderstorms and burning them.

The trees we have in the yard are great. We were lucky that this house has so many; however, there is something to be said for privacy and the back part of our yard id lacking just that. Lucky for us we have a horticulturist in the family (thank you Mark) and also a few extra helping hands (thank you Ann and Bob) who were more than willing to come to our aid in planting a few (4) evergreens that will eventually give us privacy from our neighbors as well as provide a beautiful view year round.

Sure they seem small now, but give them a few years and you won’t even know there is a house behind us.

We also felt that the side yard could use a little sprucing up so decided to plant some lilac bushes that would separate our yard from the neighbors to the west. They do die in the winter time, but then again, I will probably not be hanging outside on the back porch trying to enjoy the view in the winter time.            

All I can say is great job honey. You are amazing no matter what you do.

Oh, and Jack graduates Pre-school

On top of everything else we have going on, Jack graduated from his pre-school class. They were very cute and put on a little performance that included singing a lot of church songs (the pre-school is held in a Lutheran church), but for some reason Jack just mouthed the words even though his teacher, Ms. McNeil, said he is more animated in class. I think he may have gotten a little shy in front of so many people. They didn’t walk across a stage, but instead stayed seated as Ms. McNeil handed out their diplomas. It seems like such a small thing, but I can tell how far Jack has come along in what he can and can’t do and how much he knows now compared to before. I think this class gave him a great start to kindergarten and also will help me when it is finally time to put him on that bus by himself. As for Jack, he seems completely excited about the fact that he will get to ride a bus to and from school. I am not quite sure that excitement will hold out for very long once school starts, but one can hope.

This is a picture of Jack and his two very best friends from class Kennan on the left and Colton in the middle. Cute as can be, but you can imagine having them altogether and the chaos that ensues. This is a photo of Jack on his first day of school with his teacher and on his last day of school. He looks so much more grown up and is losing his baby face. I cannot believe how the year has flown by.  So congratulations my precious little boy. I know you will only get smarter from here. I hope you continue to enjoy school this much as you grow older

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(Just an FYI, Ms. McNeil is pregnant in the end picture which is why she is so much bigger.)

It’s been awhile…

I would love to say that our lives have been full of many wondrous adventures that have kept me so busy that I have not found the time between to even attempt updating my blog, but sadly this is not the case. We have, however, been extremely busy with the everyday.

I am incredibly happy to report that my wonderful husband, Andy, has finally moved from sunny San Diego to live with us and neither myself nor the kids could be more thrilled. It was a very long and lonely winter here without him and just as we have awaited summer to arrive, we also were impatiently waiting for the day Daddy would too.

I flew down to Las Vegas where Andy picked me up from the airport after driving five hours from San Diego so I could accompany him the rest of the drive to Wisconsin. We could have taken longer, but besides the Rockies there is really not much for scenery from Colorado on. I did try to document our trip in photos out the car window whenever I saw something that caught my eye, but again, most of these pictures were taken in Arizona, Utah and the first part of Colorado.  We did not get to see any family along the way because of the route that we chose, but we did manage to stop and see Mori’s miniature horse and his two dogs.

Some of the views on the drive were just fantastic. I was a little disappointed when we drove through the Rockies because it was a little snowy and rainy and not very pleasant at all. I cannot get over how beautiful America is.

The first few are taken in Utah and then Colorado.

This one reminds me of a Bev Doolittle painting of the painted horse.

This is my own AT&T commercial. I got five bars.

A nuclear power plant in Northern Illinois.

Finally! Welcome to Wisconsin!

It was great finally pulling into our own driveway after three days of driving. Even better when we pulled into Andy’s parents driveway ( they weren’t expecting us for another two days) and saw the kids come running out to see their parents after being away for so long.

This was just the first step in our ever increasing busy schedule.