Hark! The tile floor is down in the bathroom! The tile and the grout are down, but it hasn’t been sealed yet. Progress!!!
Tile in the Bathroom
Tag: House
Sick Baby = No Updates
Isaac has been super-snotty for about a week now. The poor little thing wants only to sleep in someone’s arms and semi-upright so he can breathe. Today, he fell asleep in his swing while I was in the shower, so I left him in the steamy bathroom. I have the door open so I’ll hear him when he awakes. Hey, don’t judge. I’ve been holding him for most of the last 4 days.
He’s getting closer to crawling when he will let me put him down to play. I have started crawling on the floor like a lunatic, which Isaac finds amusing.
This is the monthly picture with Blue Bear. I took it a few days ago, but this is the first time I’ve had a chance to blog since then. The bear is starting to look smaller! I am sorry the picture is sideways. I have no idea what’s going on with it – it’s the second time I’ve uploaded it because it was too large to fit on the screen the last time. I’ve never had this problem before…
In other news, Todd finished all of the trimwork downstairs. We are counting the stairs themselves as a separate entity. :o) He’ll finish those in a few days while he’s off at Christmas. My dad is visiting us this weekend, so I am not sure whether Todd will have a chance to work on the trim then.
Trimwork
I have been meaning to post this since Sunday. Sorry for the delay! I know you’ve been wondering what has happened around the house lately. Todd has gotten most of the baseboards up, but still needs to do some caulking around them and touching up the paint. Still on the list for baseboards are the hall closet and the pantry. He is not speculating when he’ll be finished, but I’m hoping it will be by Christmas. I’m not holding my breath, though, since we’ve had lots to distract us the last few weeks. This weekend’s priority is going to be baby-proofing since we’re soon going to have a crawler… Here are a few photos to highlight our most recent updates.
The pantry door; first it’s closed, then slightly ajar. This way you can see that it says “Pantry” on the glass part. The light switch is in the door frame, so it turns on when the door is opened and off when the door closes.
The new 8′-long picnic table that Todd made:
Repairs to the fireplace. The stones came off the side when the paneling was removed, although I didn’t hear exactly how/why that happened.
A comparison between the old TV and the new. And Todd’s creepy mustache from Mo’vember… I think it was to bring awareness to men’s health – maybe prostate health? We are now onto Decem-beard…
The now painted and finished front door surround. It looks incredible. Todd did a great job.
Funksgiving 2010
Funksgiving is, without a doubt, one of my favorite annual celebrations. Each year, on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, we gather together with close friends, a deep fryer, and some alcohol to celebrate. It’s an awesome celebration for a lot of reasons. We have a lot of the same crowd each year, but we always introduce a few new people to the fun at every celebration. I also do VERY little cooking for this as we ask everyone to bring a side dish or dessert – we offer the location, at least one turkey, and stuffing.
Last year, we celebrated at our house. To give you an idea of how far we’ve come, these are pics from last year’s celebration:
The top picture was taken while standing in the living room, looking into the kitchen and, past that, into the dining room. (I look enormous because I’m about 5 months pregnant). Our friend Robert Jackson helped to string the holiday lights from the ceiling just before the party got started. We did all of our “kitchen” work in the laundry room, which was our temporary kitchen. The floors where everyone was standing were all exposed concrete. The only walls downstairs with wallboard on them were in the laundry room and the den. The walls in the den were not painted and had “Panel” written on all of them to denote that paneling was to be added there (we had torn down the paneling a few weeks prior to the party).
In addition to having a proper kitchen this year,
we also had a totally new group of friends!
The guys still spent most of their time outside hovering around the fire and the turkey fryer. It was in the 70’s and overcast most of the day, so the weather was just about perfect.
And the Walter family managed to get its “Funk” on.
Happy Funksgiving!!!
Settling In…Still
Last week, we got a little more settled into the house. Isaac “helped” me unpack a few more boxes in the master bedroom. There are only a couple of boxes left in the master, then we get to move on to the much more challenging guest room. I am donating to Goodwill every couple of weeks as I clear out more things that we haven’t seen/used/needed in over a year…
Before the Funksgiving festivities started on Saturday, Todd got the pot racks hung in the pantry and we were finally able to clear the floor and counter space of pots, pans, and lids. Hooray!
I have been asking for a picnic table for a few months now. Especially with the cooler weather rolling in, I’d like to be able to eat dinner, and maybe even a few lunches, outside. I was thinking we would buy one, but Todd, of course, had other ideas. He found instructions to make an 8′ long table.
One of the next steps will be baby-proofing. Isaac is more mobile every day! It’s a good thing Todd has a 4-day weekend coming up because I think we’re going to need it to make the house a little safer for the mini-man.
Baseboards, Part 1
Todd got started on the baseboards this past weekend. It really finished out everything very nicely. We are eager to see the finished product! It really looks nice so far. He’s gotten most of the kitchen in place and still needs to touch up the nail holes before a final paint job.
He’s also gotten the bottom molding put in place around the cabinets. It really looks sharp!!
Swinging
Last night I was able to hang Isaac’s Johnny Jump-Up in the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room. How exciting! There’s a door frame!! Todd hung it with extra nails so I could hang our child from it!! But I digress…
Isaac had a great time “hanging out” in his new toy. He hasn’t quite figured out the jumping part. He kicks his feet when he gets excited. He gets excited in the Jump-Up. So he kicks his feet. Which twirls him in circles and bounces him around a little bit. Anyway, I think this will be what helps him to figure out the bouncing feature of this new contraption. It makes me laugh every time I watch him do this!
I know that this next video is someday going to cause me to look back and say, “My gosh, I was so young!” I hope you can see how smiley the mini-man is in this video. He was having a ball!
Finally, Daddy was not to be outdone and had to get in on the action while I went back to fixing our (awesome) chicken jambalaya for supper.
I am so glad that I ordered Isaac’s swing! I can’t wait for it to get here! We went to a park with my friend Samantha and her sons, Connor and Mason, today. Mason was born on Isaac’s due date, so he’s just a few days younger than Isaac. The smaller boys had fun playing on the swings with their mommies while Connor ran around and played with a couple of older boys. Here’s a quick shot of Isaac having some fun.
Downstairs Bathroom
Oh, happy day!!! Todd finished our downstairs half-bathroom yesterday! It was just in time, too. Our very pregnant friend, Tica, came over for dinner. It was nice to be able to send her to a restroom downstairs instead of trekking up the steps. Todd did an awesome job on it, (of course). You have seen the vanity before, but now there’s a towel rack. Naturally, I added my seasonal hand towels – I have a slight addiction to hand towels…
The toilet is finally in place. We hung the “picture window” up in the downstairs bath in the new house, just as we did in the old house. That picture was taken up in the Appalachian Mountains the weekend Todd proposed.
The door frame will be repeated throughout our downstairs. We decided to get a little fancier, plus it’s so common to see stars when in the Lone Star State.
Today, Todd has started mounting the door frame for the coat closet. He is also hoping to hang the door frame between the dining room and kitchen. Hopefully that one will be easier because there will be no actual door to mount. Bear in mind that this idea is written by the one who has no idea what goes into mounting a door frame! LOL
Stairs Have Carpet
Todd finished up the carpeting on the stairs yesterday. We keep remarking how much quieter it is now! I had no idea than one simple thing would make such a difference. I’m really glad now that I stuck to my guns on carpeting the stairs instead of using wood. When I worked for a custom home-builder, I used to sit across from the girl who helped clients make their selections. She always discouraged anyone who wanted hardwood stairs because she said it was incredibly loud in the house. We’ve been walking on wood stairs since Todd rebuilt the staircase before Isaac was born and you could always hear what was going on in the stairwell. This was a bit of a pain since Isaac’s room is right next to/over the stairs. I can’t even hear Todd and Jackson go up and down the steps any more. It’s really great! I think it looks terrific, too. I will let you judge for yourself, though.
Carpet!
Todd got the majority of the carpeting taken care of this weekend. He patched the carpet upstairs and in the living room. He also carpeted the top half of the stairs. All that is left is the carpeting on the landing and down the stairs to the main level. It’s amazing how much better the living room feels already.
We haven’t moved most of the furniture back into the family room yet. I am planning to have the baby boys and their moms over this week, so it will work out well to have more free space on the carpet and less furniture, anyway.
Downstairs, entering the family room from the front door:
Entering the master closet:
Upstairs, hall closet:
Every weekend, we get a little closer to a completed house! Todd’s goal is to get the downstairs finished (not including window sills) before Isaac’s baptism on November 7. He’s made great progress and I’m enjoying reaping the benefits!
Leavin' for Leuven 