September 2011 – nicole.groudasfamily.com

Front Hall Drywall

This past weekend was awesome! My parents came out Friday night and we spent the weekend putting up drywall in the front hallway/entry and closets. It’s not ‘finished’ because of some areas we left out strategically and also some areas we just ran out of drywall. Plus it was getting late on Sunday for them to drive home.

First up (after tons of prep work), Dad drywalled the closet in the tvroom, some of the plaster walls are staying so it was one wall and a section of ceiling to do.

Ryan and Dad framed out the wall at the end of the staircase (we wanted to open up the front entry a bit more) and this adds support under the second floor.

Next on the list was the front hall closet (coat closet), this was finished up Saturday…

DSCN1530 — Outside of the closet (actually done on Sunday)

Next Ryan and Dad drywalled the stairway, this will keep Fitz from digging the insulation out of the wall so he can hide his bone in the pile of insulation he would make.

DSCN1531 — 3 pieces high (less than a full sheet to go - but the ceiling has to be done still)

And finally a view of the front hall itself, the exterior wall is finished, the wall leading into the tvroom is finished (so we can install the door now), the wall under the stairs is finished and the wall with the arch is started (ran out of drywall), we also still have to finish the other wall in the stairway area.

DSCN1534 — The wall under the stairs (hidden here) is finished, and hte wall to the tvroom is finished!

DSCN1533 — The wall to the livingroom area is started, leaving the easy pieces for ryan and I to manage on our own.

It was a productive weekend, I barely did anything though (never do when they’re drywalling), i mostly hand the screw gun to someone and maybe screw some of the smaller pieces in while the big pieces are getting hoisted by Ryan and Dad. Much better than when it’s just Ryan and I 🙂

Mom was not sitting idle this weekend either, not only did she cook/clean up, she also picked up the yard and mowed for us! Something we just haven’t had time for. While she mowed I weedwacked which I don’t think has happened since early summer at least!

And Sunday evening after getting cleaned up I headed down to my sisters to play with my nephew for the evening! Then driving up to see my nieces on Monday and spend the day with them! It was a great break. Finley is at a wonderful age for playing even if I can hardly understand her ‘conversation’ 🙂 And by hardly I mean she mostly uses 4 or 5 words that have real meaning but she can babble on about something, luckily not caring if I just babble back. We played princess and shopping and baby doll all day until Emily got home at which time we got into a few bigger girl games. It was a great day and I can’t wait to see them again this weekend!

In the meantime, aside from working, I hope to get some costume progress made. Spackling is on hold until costumes are done!

Fitz’s day

I noticed yesterday that when I got home the door from our bedroom to our screened in porch was ajar and I know when I left in the morning it was closed (not shut and latched but closed for privacy). I realized Fitz must have pawed it open (he’s getting good at that) and spent at least part of his day out there.

Since I’m working from home today and Fitz was driving me crazy with his huffs and sighs, I decided to open the porch door again, then I sneaked up on him to take a picture. Most of the time he’s just laying out there, sometimes sitting so he can just barely see out, then if something catches his interest he does this:

The squirrels and birds were putting on quite a show for about 5 minutes he stood like this. He’s such a riot!

Stitch weekend?

Originally planned as a get-a-way stitch weekend with my friend Sarah, we both got busy and never got around to booking anything. Turned out just fine however, we spent Saturday together, mostly stitching and got to meet up with some of our other stitching friends for a few hours as well.

Stitching progress on Celtic Banner:

Compass is officially done, mostly I worked on the border

Ryan had to work all weekend, although he did make it home in time for dinner Saturday and Sunday they evacuated the building (9/11/11) so he came home to work for most of the day.

Sunday turned out pretty productive for me, I watched a movie in the morning since I was up early and it was too chilly outside yet. Then after taking Fitz for his long walk I worked on window panels. I decided to do everything I could reach without a ladder (the ladder had a HUGE spider web on it – wasn’t touching it!). Plus the vertical panels really need 2 people anyhow.

So I got the window sill in all around the rest of the diningroom panels, then finished the lower panels.

DSCN1519 — The large diningroom window just needed the flat panel part added in and the sill finished.

DSCN1518 — The back window just needed the sills finished, the vertical pieces put in and the panel added. The back panel I had to do entirely.

I was very happy with how long this took (not too long) but it was a LOT of back and forth (inside to cut and back out) so it tired me out. So once I was done I decided a nap was in order (Fitz agreed), then I wandered upstairs to do a little sewing. I made some more progress on the Tangled costume for Maia. I re-did the top (and now it works) and started on the skirts. I’ll post some pictures this week after I make a bit more progress on it.

Now it’s time for bed and a full work week starting tomorrow. I’m very glad I had such a relaxing weekend!

Tangled Halloween Costume

I’ve started the first of 3 halloween costumes (last week actually, just little by little in the evenings). So I got the top cut out and started putting it together last night. I hit a spot in the directions where I was COMPLETELY lost and couldn’t figure out what they were trying to do – this is a first for me, sometimes I need to read it a few times but I was really lost this time.

Finally I just continued forward doing what I thought they might be saying but the ‘folding’ was throwing me off. It involves lots of eyelets so after I got them all put in I took a look and finally realized what the directions were saying – I needed to fold the front before putting the eyelets in so they went through 2 layers of the top fabric !!! UGG!

Not a big deal to cut out the front pieces again and redo it – but the eyelets were a huge pain with this satin material – not looking forward to doing that part again 🙁 lesson learned though! The directions are horrible, i’ll have to write some notes down in case I ever do something similar in the future!

Labor Day Weekend

What a packed weekend! It was great, we got to see all the families and do some camping and Fitz had a blast.

Friday night I picked Ryan up in Boston and we drove back to NY. Saturday after sleeping in (which is why we did the late night drive) we got packed up to head up to Knox! It was muddy this year due to all the rain but the campsite was dry and Mom and Dad had gone up Friday and mowed the campsite as well as set up a canopy already so setup was easy.

We relaxed all day and Fitz was great off-leash the whole time – plus he loved to swim! I think he’s part beaver because he thought it was his mission to remove all sticks from the pond (and of course we kept throwing them back in for him), then he’d chew them – crazy dog 🙂

DSCN1483 — He jumped in the second he saw the water, we were surprised and excited. It was so hot and muggy he probably thought this would cool him off 🙂

DSCN1505 — Retrieving another stick, beaver-lab mix 🙂

DSCN1515 — Who needs toys when there are sticks to chew?

Sunday as we were eating a late (and hearty) breakfast we saw the storm clouds coming so we raced to pack up the campsite so the tents could be packed up dry (well mostly dry – the dew was crazy heavy due to the high humidity). Then we waited out the pouring rain before trecking back to the cars and heading out.

On the way back we stopped by Ryan’s mom’s house (she just got a new house) and Fitz got to play with her 3 dogs. After dinner we headed back to my parents with a tired puppy sleeping in the back 🙂 After another night relaxing, we went down to Ryan’s dad’s house on Monday for lunch before driving home. We picked up the posts he’s been making! Holy cow – 6 posts already done – made from 6×6 pressure treated wood and they look great. I will snap a picture tonight hopefully. That’s about half of what we need for our crazy huge porch and we can’t wait to get them installed!

Still Here

Seems I dropped off the blogosphere after our closet finished huh? Well let me fill you in…

The last weekend of our vacation we went back to NY for my nephew’s welcome baby bbq. Then Irene decided she was attending and we had to cancel so we drove home Saturday night. That meant Sunday was actually an unexpected day at the house – did I get anything done – no. Why? Because Saturday night I didn’t feel well so I didn’t sleep well so I slept most of Sunday!

Monday brought work again and Ryan’s new job started up. This means that while I’m also busy due to a new program at work, Ryan is even busier and has a longer commute (mine is tough to beat too!). So I’m on full time dog duty as well as house everything duty. This leaves less time for much else BUT I have been getting a start on halloween costumes!

The black cat costume was put together and tried out, it needs a little adjusting and then it needs embelishment. That’s a quick one. I also started the top for Maia’s dress, go the pieces cut out. I’ll post pictures after I’ve done some actual sewing 🙂

Camping?! this weekend – depends how Knox is (is it a swamp after Irene) and how the weather is. Either way we’ll be seeing family this weekend and Irene is not coming!