Home Remodel

I have terribly neglectful of our blog this summer. I guess I have been busy doing other things. We have been doing a giant home remodel and it is nearing completion. I also need to post about the other things we did this summer: Brynn's baptism and birthday, the races I participated in, some new haircuts for the girls, and a few other fun things. I will start with the remodel. It has been all-consuming for months now and I can't believe we are almost done.  So here is a huge picture rundown of what we have been up to:

Kitchen before. Notice dark cabinets, wall by stairs, and ugly lamp over stairs. Soon they will be gone.

Living room before. Notice entryway with it's special posts, the stairway that is not up to code (plastic latticework) and the decorative railing behind the couch.

Living room/kitchen before.

Cabinets coming down. I did this by myself in an afternoon. I must say it gave me a bug to destroy everything. Demolition is so much fun! The girls sat on the deck and watched me. They were my cheering section. "Hit is again, Mom!"

 

Cabinets gone. We should have done this years ago. I have not missed the cabinets for two seconds. They were so narrow you could not even fit a dinner plate into them.

This banister is up to code, right?

 Shawn and Dad discussing the important things in life: How do we rip this railing out of here?

 

Shawn working on taking the fireplace out. We had to cut the wall out to get to the stovepipe. We had to cut through the stovepipe, which was three layers thick.

Fireplace gone. We were left with a super creepy hole in the wall. The stovepipe was left hanging there. We thought it would be fine. Shawn tarred around it up on the chimney to close a water leak and everything looked good. We came home from church to find the stovepipe had fallen through the chimney and was sitting on the floor in the wall. There is now a 14-inch hole in our chimney where the stovepipe used to be. We just left the stovepipe in the wall and sheet-rocked over it.

We took out a little wall here by the stairs. My new can lights are in place and we have started painting.

This is the sheet rock repair job where the fireplace used to be. It was so nice to not have a giant hole in the wall anymore. The cat had been crawling around in the hole the hour before we closed it up. We made sure we knew where she was at before we closed the hole.

Stair banister gone. I tore this out by myself one morning. Again, I think I like demolition a little too much. Claire is practicing safe stair-climbing technique in the picture. Do you all want to send your kids over to play at my house. I promise it is super-safe.

This is the wall where the fireplace used to be, patched and painted. You would never guess there used to be a fireplace there.

One of my new light fixtures. I LOVE them!

Just a happy kid. Our kids have been so patient with this whole thing. Such good girls.

This is what we found underneath the floor when we tore it up. I think this we the original linoleum in the house. Isn't it pretty? Claire was calling it our treasure floor. The girls loved it and wanted to keep it. It is still down there, so I guess we kind of did.

 Old kitchen floor gone. Kind of.

New laminate going down. This was an exciting day. I love this floor and the new feel it gave to this space.

New floor just about done!

Old carpet coming up. My parent and Jake came over and helped us pull staples for hours. Then as payment I gave Jake the old carpet. It is headed for his garage. Heehee.

Old sink on it's way out. Countertops gone.

New countertenors. They are so pretty! And I love the way they make the cabinets pop. It is finally starting to come together!

New sink. I have wanted a stainless sink for years. I am so excited

New carpet. We finally can start putting the house back together. The carpet looks great! The girls spent all afternoon rolling around on it.

New ceiling fan. We have had no ceiling lighting in the living room up to this point. I am so excited about this lamp, and anyone who know me know I am hot all the time so the fan will be great!

We cased all the windows and put up new molding. This was a huge job, but so worth it. It all looks great and really finishes everything off.

That is about it. I will post some more pics when we get the furniture back in. The bookcase will probably go in around November. Shawn has worked so hard. Thank you baby!! Also thank you to my parents who helped so much. THey would call every day and ask what I got done and what I was going to do. I think they were worried that they would get stuck with the work so they were highly motivated for me to work hard. Seriously they helped a ton. We can never repay them.

So now for the next month I am going to sit on my couch and look at my pretty new house. Come over and you can sit next to me and we can stare together.

Syd is 10!!

 Syd recently had a birthday. She is 10! Can you believe it? Here are some higlights fromher birthday:

We had a small family party.

 Syd and I went into town earlier in the day and got her ears pierced. She was so brave! Not one tear was shed. Then she picked out some earrings and I wrapped them up and she did a great job of acting surprised when she opened them that evening.

 She got some super cool sunglasses from Grandpa Dave and Grandma Leslie. She looks totally chill, huh?

 She also got a very cool kite from Grandpa and Grandma. As a side story: Her birthday was on a Wednesday. On Sunday she took the kite outside to try to get it to fly while Shawn and I were taking a Sunday nap. She came in after just a few minutes soaking wet. She had been paying so much attention to the kite that she backed up and fell into the pool in the backyard. Hee, hee. We are excited to try out the kite at Grandpa's house where there is a little more room and no pools.

 Syd has been playing softball on a ponytail league this summer and loving it. Grandpa and Grandma got her a softball.

 I got her some curclers for her hair. Everyone had to try them out. Very pretty.

 We also got her a new bike. She was not expecting this at all and we surprised the crap out of her which was lots of fun. It is her first geared bike. She seems to really like it. Another story: She and Brynn went for a ride the next day. They had been gone for about 10 minutes when Brynn came screeching into the house yelling that Syd had crashed on her new bike and it was broken and she was bleeding. So I went out to find Sydney walking her bike home and crying. She was banged up pretty good, but she was more worried that she had broken her bike for good. I put the chain back on and it was as good as new. She now has some awesome bruises and scraps to show off, and the bike was not hurt.

 I had to try the curlers too. I felt like a witch. Cackle, cackle.

 Syd requested a Kit-Kat cake. Kit-Kats are her favorite candy bar so this cake was perfect for her.

Blowing out the candles.

We had a great birthday with Syd. I can't believe how grown-up and big my baby is getting. She is such a good girl and we are so proud of her. Hope you had a great day, Syd!

Mindy in the spotlight

The gym we go to did a profile on Mindy this week. She rocks so you should check it out!

Mindy's Athlete Profile

We will have to do a whole post about the mud run, but here are some more pics to wet your appetite.

Brynn's Dance Recital

Brynn's dance recital was just over a week ago.
She did fantastic!

Brynn has done ballet and jazz this year. Her ballet dance was from Swan Lake. It was absolutely charming. She did fantastic and I loved her cute black tutu.

Her jazz dance was Say Hey (I Love You) by Michael Franti And Spearhead. It was lots of fun and Brynn's even got a special part in it. Here are lots of pictures of her in her costumes:

We love you Brynn! You are a great little ballerina!

Night-time Antics

So apparently things are happening at my house while I sleep. This morning Claire was asleep on the couch downstairs. Like REALLY asleep. I chatted with Brynn (her roomate) and from what I can piece together this is what happened last night:
Claire got up at 10:30 to take herself potty. We were super-proud. She got up again at 12:30 to go potty again. Proud again, but a little suspisious at this point. She never needs to go more than once at night. Shawn went to bed shortly after this and apprently this is when the party really got underway. Claire got up and sat in the rocking chair in her bedroom and read stories. After a while she started reading out loud to Brynn. This was somwhere around 4:30 AM. Brynn told her to stop and go back to bed. Claire came upstairs and told Shawn and I that there was water in Sydney's window well. This caused immediate action because this really has happened before. Shawn assesed that there was no water anywhere and put Claire back to bed. At some point after this she got up again and found a pen in the family room. She proceeded to color all over her arms and legs and tummy, and she even gave herself a moustache. I think she fell asleep on the couch after this. I am not sure, but that is where Sydney found her this morning at 7:00 when she got up. I woke Claire up at 8:45. It took some good effort on my part and she was not happy to have to get up.
So I guess the conclusion is that if you want to party, wait until the parents go to bed to get things really rolling. I am a little scared that she knows that this early. But don't you like her mustache?

What We Did Last Weekend

 I ran in the Health Days 5K race. I did okay. 32 minutes. My bro-in-law, Jon, also ran and kicked my trash. That was fun for him. His time was 28 minutes. Seriously Jon, you did fantastic.

We watched Brynn in the Health Days Parade. She rode on a float with her dance group. Hi Brynn! We also got lots of taffy.

We painted the hen house. Doesn't it look great! We got the paint for free at the paint recycling shed at the landfill. How cool that they had barn red?

I love the nesting box and little door in the coop.

We moved the chickens into their new home. I think they like it.

 The ladies are growing super fast!

I hope you all had a good weekend too!

Up next: Brynn's dance recital. Stay tuned.

Mother's Day

I would like to introduce you to my Mother's Day presents:

 This is Cee Cee. She is a Barred Rock hen and will be black and white striped when she grows up.

 This is Peck. She is a Australorp and will be black. She will probably lay brown eggs.

 This is Stretch. She is a Rhode Island Red. Guess what color she will be? Syd has nicknamed her Mrs. Attitude and I would not be surprised if she ends up being the ring-leader of the bunch.

 This is Delilah. She is the sweetest little thing. She is an Easter Egger and will lay blue or green eggs. She will sit on my hand and hang out. Very cute and sweet.

Shawn and I have been toying with the idea of getting chickens for quite a while now. I kind of backed off the idea because we will be remodeling a big portion of our kitchen/living room this summer and I felt bad making extra work for him. But he told me last week that he wanted to get me chickens and build me a coop for Mother's Day. How fantastic is he? So we went down to IFA and picked out some little sweeties. I can't say there was any method to choosing them other than I wanted them to be pretty when the got big, nice to my girls (non-agressive), and I loved the idea of lots of different colored eggs.

In the few days we have had them we have all fallen in love with them. We have spent lots of time holding them, checking on them, and just watching them roam around their little box. Bobbi (our cat) is bewildered by them. She doesn't know whether to ignore them or eat them. After the first day the girls said to me "Mom, thank you so much for getting us chickens for Mother's Day"

Ha, ha, I'm sure they will be thinking that when I make them clean up chicken poop this summer.

 Shawn is building me an awesome hen house for my little ladies. It is going to be fantastic! But I have a dilemma: What color should I paint it? Barn-yard red with white trim or make it match the shed it is right next to: tan with brown trim. What to do. My dad suggested I just paint a big Chick-Fil-A logo on it.

This will be the nesting box. Chickens like to go into a little space away from the hustle of the coop. They will actually cackle for each other when they lay eggs. My girls will not start laying eggs for 4-6 months, but we are looking forward to watching them grow and develop into full grown chickens.

We will keep you all posted as to the going-ons in the hen house. For right now they seem to like to eat and sleep and poop. Kind of like all babies. Thank you Shawn for a awesome Mother's Day gift!

Oh and just in case you think I forgot here are some pictures of my other babies who I love more than life: