Hub of Activity

Well, hello!! I've heard from a few of you that this post is long overdue so here it is. The drywallers officially finished yesterday. Whew! They probably hope they never have to come back. Yesterday was just "touch up" day and the painter started on Tuesday already. Tuesday was a C-R-A-Z-Y day. The drywaller, painter, electrician, floor installers, plumbers and carpenters were all at the house at the same time! So that means the drywalling is finished, soffit and fascia are done, proboard installed, the basement is well on its way with electricity, plumbing, duct work, vacuum lines and other things that I'm sure I'm missing. The garage doors have also been installed. The kids were having a great time watching the doors go up and down, it's something new for them, they were especially impressed with the sensor that will automatically make the doors go up if something crosses the line while they're on their way down. Here are some pictures of the progress!

The house with the garage doors



Part of the work that's been done in the basement

When we walked into the house this evening we did not expect Jeannie, our painter, to still be there and we definitely did not expect to see colour on some of the walls. The girls were thrilled to see purple on their wall! They thought it was the most beautiful colour ever and can hardly wait to see what it will look like with the pink around the windows. Josiah built the window seat today and the girls already have ideas as to what kind of cushions and pillows should go on it and which toys should go on the shelves.

Jeannie had been working in Nathan's room and was just going to start his feature wall so he asked if he could watch her. Jeannie was very patient, she explained everything she was doing and the kids were mesmerized. She must have explained everything quite well because Bethany didn't even ask too many questions!

She then thrilled the kids even more by asking them if they wanted to help paint the wall. The girls were gracious enough to let Nathan be the first one to paint the wall in his room.

The finished product of the first coat!

I have a feeling I'm going to be telling Bethany "no" a lot tomorrow. She was so excited to have painted part of Nathan's wall, and she loves Jeannie, that I'm sure she's going to be begging to go back to the house to "help"!

School, Sibling Teamwork and Snakes

WARNING - PICTURES OF SNAKES AT THE VERY END OF THIS POST!!! Another warning precedes the paragraph that precedes the pictures. I know there are some of you who would prefer not to see the pictures, so I've posted the fun stuff first!!

Today was the first day of school! Nathan was looking forward to meeting his new Grade 4 teacher (she's been on maternity leave for the last 2 years) and Larissa was thrilled to start Grade 1 with a teacher she was already familiar with. I, however, was rather relaxed this morning (for real) that I completely forgot to take pictures of the kids on their first day of school! Mom of the year I am not! So I grabbed the camera and took the chaotic just-off-the-bus pictures. No one was wanting to pose for pictures and everyone wanted to get home to tell me about their day. So....here are the crazy pics I got this afternoon.

Here's proof of how relaxed we were this morning, Nathan's playing Blokus on my iPod after breakfast. We are so relaxed in the morning that our brains don't quite function properly. I remember to take pictures of the uber-relaxed moments but completely forget the important ones, like the first day of school! 

Rushing off the bus

The mad bike scramble as the bus drives away!

After supper the kids and I hopped on the quads and went to the house. When we were finished there we decided to go for a little ride. When we pulled back onto the yard the chain fell off from the quad Nathan was driving. I don't know how to fix it, I'm sure it's simple, but I didn't want to give myself a crash course in quad maintenance! Thankfully the quad is small so I was expecting an easy push to the shed. Turns out, I didn't have to do anything! The kids worked together and pushed the quad from the northeast corner of the yard all the way into the shop, I didn't even open the shop doors, Nathan did that himself! I realized right there how big, mature, helpful and loving my kids are. The girls were more than willing to help. Larissa automatically got behind the quad to push and all Nathan had to say was "Bethany, I've got a job for you" and she was a very willing participant. It helped that her job was to steer the quad that she's not allowed to drive! (Yes, Mom, the quad was turned off!)

I don't think the older two trusted the steering of the youngest one so she had to get off and push so Nathan could steer from the side while still pushing. Amazingly enough, there were no complaints from Bethany when she was asked to push.

For those who may get the creepy crawlies I'm going to post a WARNING - PICTURES OF SNAKES TO FOLLOW THIS PARAGRAPH!!!! Ron's sister and family were out for most of last week so we headed on down to Reptile Gardens. Ron & Nathan did not join us, they had to "farm". They both have a huge fear of snakes that even though the snakes are behind glass that's still not enough to protect them. I'm not mocking them, I definitely do not want one as a pet and I am more than happy that my kids are not willing to pick up the garters we have around here. I find snakes amazing though and I am willing to expose my girls to something out of my comfort zone, like an up close and personal encounter with an albino boa constrictor that was about 20 ft long and weighed 70 lbs!

Pictures start now!!

The girls were a little leary to touch the snake but it didn't take long for them to warm up to her!

Apparently she had just shed her skin so she was looking "beautiful".

Our 11 month old niece LOVED the snake! I think if she could have taken it home with her and cuddled with it in her crib she would have!

It's Official...

We have the "roughest" house to mud and tape. Yay! (note sarcasm) The kids and I were at the house this evening and were surprised to still find one of the guys there mudding and taping. I asked how difficult our house was to do and he said it was the roughest house they'd ever done. There are so many angles and they are not impressed with the dormer windows (it is a very tight area, I'll let them not like us for those!) that it's taking them much longer than anticipated. Apparently the dormers each took 10 hours to drywall, I can only imagine how much fun they are to mud and tape! The crew has been busy at another job in Minnedosa (which I didn't know about) so there has been only one guy at our place for the last 2 weeks mudding and taping. That explains why everything is taking so long! He said that he finally finished the first coat of everything today and tomorrow there should be at least two guys working on our house for the duration of the project. I asked if he could tell me how much longer it would take and he would not give me an answer. Great. So we'll continue to wait.

The siding is coming along nicely. It looks so much better than I thought it would! It's so nice to see that a colour that was chosen worked out, especially something a little more on the permanent side. Here is a picture. The plywood is where the stone work will go.

The furnace and hot water heater were installed today so we'll have heat for those cold winter nights! I'm not sure there will be much to update on in the next week and a bit while the mudding is going on...