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...

Acres of Hope

Acres of Hope is our local Canadian Foodgrains Bank growing project. Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB) is a federally incorporated, nonprofit corporation registered as a charitable agency. Since 1983, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank membership has provided over 1.1 million tonnes of food assistance to people who are hungry in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Eastern Europe. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) provides an annual 4:1 matching contribution to a maximum of $25 million. There are over 200 growing projects in Canada and each growing project has a group of between 10 - 100 volunteers as well as a number of local businesses. Our own community growing project involves a group of people made up of farmers, churches and local businesses who meet together to farm a local 200 acre field. Once harvested, the money from the sale of the grain is donated to CFGB for use in food aid and development projects. (CFGB information was taken from their website http://www.foodgrainsbank.ca/)

This year the field for our project was so wet that for the first time in the project's 14 year history the field went unseeded. The project does qualify for the unseeded acres compensation program so there will still be a donation forwarded to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank but our kids and nephews and niece decided to do something more. For the last couple of summers the kids have been selling produce from our gardens on our farmyard to raise funds for Acres of Hope. This usually results in us and our hired men buying the produce considering no signs are up for advertising and we don't get much traffic on and off our yard! This year, though, Ron's mom decided it would be a great project with the grandkids to grow corn to sell in town to raise money for Acres of Hope. The corn idea grew a bit to include baking by the kids, Grandma, as well as a few donations by some women in the community. Yesterday was harvest day and it took the kids and Grandma, with the help of my sister-in-law and me, less than an hour to pick the five rows of corn that had been designated for Acres of Hope. We arrived at the Credit Union parking lot, set up and started selling at 9:30. By 10:15 all the baking was sold and there were a few dozen cobs of corn left. When the sale ended at 11:30 there were 1 - 2 dozen cobs left, which we gave to a local community group. We have been overwhelmed by the support from our community and raised over $600 just in sales and another $1200 in donations above product sales!!

Grandma and the grandkids before the harvest

Showing off one of the many crates full of corn

Pouring the fudge into the pan. Nathan and Larissa made three desserts all by themselves!

The kids are thrilled with the results from their efforts and are looking forward to doing it all again next year, with a few plans to make it bigger!

Stairs, Siding and the Drywalling Continues...

Can you guess by the title of the post what is happening at the house??!! The stairs were installed last week before we headed to my parents' place for the week so Bethany got to go down into her beloved basement! She wanted Ron to help her down the stairs the first time, they're tricky when you haven't grown up in a house with stairs. She then proceeded to go up and down the stairs on her own the rest of the time we spent in the house that morning! She did dance on the floor a bit but was mainly fascinated by the fact that we now had stairs.

Bethany giving her "thumbs up" approval of the new stairs

The siding has been started on as well. It is beautiful, I love it! I can hardly wait until it's all finished and our house looks like it's nearing completion from the outside. We are having stonework done on the front of the house but that probably won't happen until spring so it won't be completely finished on the outside for a while. I'm guessing it won't look completely finished until the landscaping is done so we have a few years yet to get to that stage. I need to slow my brain down or I will get overwhelmed by what all needs to happen in the next couple of years!

They started the siding on the back of the house. There will eventually be a deck off the garden doors (and a hot tub off the deck!!).

The drywalling process is continuing. They are now mudding and taping. The drywallers had initially thought they'd be done by now and the painting would have started this week but I'm guessing they got a bit more than they bargained for with our ceilings and many corners. I hope the painting can start next week but that's just my own hope and not based on anything I've been told. I tried to prepare myself for how slow the mudding and taping process is but I got excited by the initial timeline we were given so I'm having a hard time re-pacing myself.

This week is obviously siding and mudding & taping, next week will hopefully see the finishing of those projects plus our plumber coming in to install the furnace and whatever other work he can do now that the basement floor and stairs are in. We are just waiting to hear from the electrician as to when he can come do the wiring in the basement and then the drywallers can move down there!

Hearing and Seeing and Growing

Today Nathan had an appointment with his ENT. This was a routine check on his ears as he had tubes put in back in 2006 and one of them caused a hole in his eardrum. We were told it was one of the risks of ear tubes but we decided it was worth the small risk considering we may be dealing with multiple ear infections and more antibiotics than anyone needs to be on in a lifetime! The hole has caused some hearing loss but mainly it's been a nuisance by needing to have earplugs everytime he goes near water. The earplugs are to prevent the water from draining into his ear, sitting there and then possibly becoming infected or causing more hearing loss. In the five or so years that he's had to wear earplugs he's been bothered by water in his ears maybe three times, and it's never been infected so we've been very fortunate with that. When the hole formed in Nathan's eardrum (he was 3 1/2) we were told that if it didn't heal on it's own by the time he was seven surgery would be required to fix it. In the last nine months we've been visiting the ENT regularly and Nathan's had several hearing tests to keep an eye on things. The last two hearing tests (last December and last April) have shown decreases in his hearing and the hole was still in his eardrum this past May when we had our last appointment. There was not a hearing test scheduled previous to this appointment so we didn't know where his hearing was at, no changes had been noticed at home (listening is a different story!!;D), so we were coming into this appointment unsure of the direction it might take. The ENT looked in Nathan's right ear (the one with the hole), then looked in his left ear and then back into the right one. He said he couldn't see a hole but he wanted to clean out the wax and use a different instrument just to be sure. He then proceeded to repeat the steps with the new instrument (right, left, then right again) and said the hole had completely disappeared! All he saw in both ears were two whole and healthy eardrums! We were all shocked! Nathan & I were also amazed and unsure of what to do. The ENT said there was no need for ear plugs for showers, baths, swimming, running through the sprinkler or any other water activity any more. We are going swimming tomorrow and Nathan is nervous about not using an ear plug. He may wear one just to feel a bit more at ease but also knows that if it falls out we don't need to search for it or panic that water may have gotten in his ear. We are praising God for his goodness and miraculous healing! I realize it's a small hole but it feels like a big deal in our family. I now need to schedule a hearing test for November and we will see the ENT again in December.

You may wonder about the "seeing and growing" part of the title of this post considering I've focused on the "hearing" portion so far. Nathan got to see a lot today in the ENT waiting room as he got frustrated while we waited an extra 40 minutes past our appointment time. There was a 3 year old boy who sounded like Donald Duck when he spoke. At first we thought he was an entertaining little boy until we saw he had two hearing aids and heard his mom talk to someone else in the waiting room about how his vocal chords weren't attached when he was born and how the doctor tried to attach them and would probably need to repeat the surgery. She was also talking about all of the speech therapy and physical therapy her son has to go through. We also saw another boy with autism who couldn't speak, didn't enjoy his hearing test, had two hearing aids and couldn't communicate exactly how he felt. Nathan later said to me, "Mom, I'm not really a big deal. It was okay that the doctor was late." Growing.

Closed In

The house is starting to feel closed in now, the drywalling started Monday. One day early in the week we walked into the house and Nathan was amazed at how closed in and small the house felt now that he couldn't see all the way through from the mudroom to his room!

The dining room windows



I realized I didn't have great pictures of the drywalling process. Larissa had desperately wanted to take pictures so these are from her perspective.

The kids like to play on the scaffolding so much that Bethany has asked for some for her birthday!

The basement floor was poured this week!! Bethany was thrilled and is eagerly anticipating the raising of the stairs so she can run up and down them and dance on the basement floor. Now we can get the electrical and venting finished in the basement and a few walls roughed in. I'm not sure when that will all happen but I'm looking forward to the basement progress!

I also chose colours for our walls this week. I walked through the house with our painter, who is also an interior decorator, and in less than two hours had the house all coloured. Ron was busy so couldn't be part of the process, which is good, I'm pretty sure it went faster this way!!

The plan for this week is to start mudding and installing the basement stairs. We could guess on a few other things that may happen this week but it turns out that we're not very good at that game!