What a great weekend. Friday night Ryan had plans so I spent the evening quilting and finished up the baby quilts for my nephew! Perfect timing since we went down to see him on Saturday.
We spent the day at my sister’s house feeding, burping, changing and holding little jason! Couldn’t have been better, he’s getting so much bigger and he stayed awake for most of the day so we took TONS of pictures.
Today we drove home – with Fitz (he spent the week at my parent’s since I was in CA) – and took him for a nice long walk while Ryan mowed the lawn. Then we worked on windows panels for a few hours and made some good progress.
Window panel progressPanels close up
We’ve got 2 of 5 sides done (below the window caps). Next weekend we’ll switch to finishing the window caps so we can finish the siding on the front part. They go slow but faster than when we started this project last year.
Busy weekend with work (traveling monday) and my cousin’s graduation all day sunday. But we did manage to do some more siding on the front, we went as high as we could without putting the caps on the windows/door. (which we have to make still.
Siding progress!
Then I spent the evening saturday finishing up my nephew’s quilt! One of his quilts anyway, the other I got all the pieces for applique ready and i can bring it to CA for with me 🙂
Crib quilt finished!
Off to the graduation – and little Fitzy is going to his grandparent’s house for the week – quite an adventure!
What a great weekend, we made a lot of progress on the siding this weekend. It started friday night, we got to work on the window panels on the cupola, the goal was to get the left side window done so we had something to butt the siding up to on the front.
We did a bit more than we ‘had’ to, pretty much sticking to window panels and prep work friday night and saturday. Sunday we then proceeded to install the siding on the front, and a block for the mailbox we plan to build. We got about halfway up and we’re very excited by the progress!
Window panels on the left of the cupolaA few boards we continued, including the start of the window cap around the cupolaOn the back side we cleaned up the existing board and primed it, we didn't finish all the way around yet though.Finishing up the removal of the old siding so we could put up tar paper in prep for siding.Started the cap on the front doorRyan made a new base piece by planing down a piece of 5/4 and then putting an angle on it, then I primed it.We couldn't resist putting one of the window panel pieces in, just looks better that way.A close up of the siding on the right, with the new backplate we put in for a mailboxThe siding - halway done on the front!
That was our weekend, not bad for sleeping in late each day. Hopefully the weather is good next weekend and we can continue the siding on saturday!
I was in charge of drop off for doggy daycare today, which means I couldn’t leave too early (we drop him off around 8:15). So i had some time to kill this morning and with nice weather forcasted for today and tomorrow I decided to get the deck stained! Wasn’t hard since it was already sanded, just a vacuum, then stain it.
Deck in front of door - stained!
Fitz is at daycare for the day, hopefully getting tired out and a bit more house trained (it’s hard to house train a dog that doesn’t go in our house but does in other people’s houses) 🙂 This is the first week that Fitz had his new schedule, tues and wed he had the dog walker come over to play for an hour and thurs he goes to daycare. Fridays i work from home so he should be good, i can take him out at lunch time to play and every other week his trainer will come over.
Family weekend coming up! I can’t wait to see everyone and have Jovi meet Fitz finally. Going to be interesting 🙂
And vacation is over 🙁 However we did end the vacation with a pretty productive weekend which is always good!
Saturday I got the rest of the gym and bathroom touchups painted so they are both done except for doors. Ryan continued to lay decking and got all the way to the post on the other side of the door! Even in the cold! Sarah came up for a stitch and to meet Fitz. He slept while we stitched and chatted 🙂
Around dinner time Ryan called it quits on the deck and after dinner I put together the wall hanging for my sister’s nursery (I have to applique animals still but the top is pieced now!). So very productive.
Decking across the front door now!
Sunday was a beautiful day (very warm), so we did a nice long walk and since it was my birthday we worked on the cabinet/entertainment center I want to build for the gym! We got the box cut and put together! This picture of it is actually upside down because the top will be like a counter made of poplar. We still have to make the front face (stiles/rails) for it and then a drawer and feet. Finally it will be painted. It will hold the receiver, dvd player and have a drawer.
Cabinet for the gym entertainment pieces
After a break we decided to sand the decking and get it ready to stain, of course after sanding it, it started to rain so we covered it with a tarp again until better weather 🙂 We ended our vacation with some P&P on dvd, it was a great birthday!
The week has just flown by! But not without some house progress to show however. Thursday was a day of errands, Ryan had his leadership thing in the morning so I ran errands. At lunch time we went over and picked up more decking now that it was in. Then we took Fitz to the vet (while he seems house broken at our house, he certainly still marks at other places – he peed twice at the vet) 🙂
Then we packed up and headed down to uncle mark’s for a sleepover (with Fitz). He got to meet Buddy and we kept a very close eye on him so he wouldn’t pee in the house (he did lift his leg once the rascal). He was very good however and even the car ride back didn’t seem too scary for him.
Home friday, Ryan got to work laying the new decking!
New decking down!Halfway across the front door.
While he worked on that, I puttered around the house, doing some small drywall patches in the bathroom and gym so those could be really finished. And I finished stripping the first side of the gym door, vacuumed, did laundry etc. At 1pm the trainer came over to discuss our contract and to do some training.
For the first two weeks we are working on sit, stay, come as well as how to walk on a leash properly and some relationship building (humans lead the way out of (and into) the house, he sits for food and basically anything and he only has 15 minutes to eat in the morning and night or else he doesn’t get his food. Also eye contact, we need to build his confidence by making him look at us more. We were working on most of these things already so we have seen some progress and hopefully in 2 weeks we’ll be ready for some more advanced training (sitting while there are distractions around etc), staying for longer, laying down.
The training session was very good and now I know how we should be walking him and I’m more comfortable with our long walks. Speaking of walks, the spoiled boy gets 2 long walks a day during vacation. During the week he’ll have the trainer come by twice a week to walk him as well and one day a week we’ll try out doggie day care. Spoiled! We’ll see how this goes throughout the 12 weeks of training and then re-evaluate his needs.
Anyway, today Ryan is back to the decking, I’m painting touchups and the trim around the gym door (wanted to wait until the treadmill was in). We have company coming today, Sarah is coming up and Uncle Pete is going to stop by with the Georgia to meet Fitz and see the progress. Too bad it’s cold out today 🙁 Well I’m going to run down to the corner store quick before Sarah comes, then finish my painting. I plan to get some stitching time today for sure!
Poor Ryan woke up coming down with a cold on his birthday 🙁 We still got up early and did some work (finished leveling the porch) while Maribeth and I worked on making a new compost bin that i’ve had planned since last summer. We got the bin part done, just need to make a top for it now.
The porch is all level, we bought some decking but they didn’t have enough when we were at the lumber yard so we’ll have to go back later this week to see if their shipment comes in.
After Mark and Maribeth left, Ryan and I took a little break to watch a movie (ryan’s head was really pounding), so we watched Date Night which was okay.
Fitz was pretty stinky (really he needs his teeth brushed) but we’ve been meaning to give him a bath since we got him so I took him out and washed him (he wasn’t loving it but did okay). Here he is all fluffy and clean (smells like oatmeal!)
Fitz is clean!And he's off
Here are some pictures of the porch all leveled out!
The side of the porch leveledNew front cornerLook how level that porch is!
I can’t believe the rain has held off this long, we really have had some wonderful weather to start off our vacation. I think it’s going to be raining tomorrow, if ryan is feeling better maybe we’ll do some indoor projects or just relax for the day.
Thursday Fitz goes to the Vet and Friday he has a trainer. So tomorrow is our last completely free day!
Sunday was Family day! Mark and Maribeth got here early (I was still out at home depot and the grocery store). And when I got home, work on the porch had already started! The weather was great, so Mark and Ryan started working on getting the porch more leveled out and supporting it all the way across the front.
I got the dog runner set up and as i was doing that and Maribeth was raking, Becca and the girls showed up! The rest of the day centered around the girls! We played with the dog, we ate some lunch, then we went to the Carnival! There was a one week Carnival at Hollman Stadium, no entrance fee, just tickets to purchase and rides to ride. Emily rode every ride she was big enough for and she was worn out after such a long day!
We ended the evening by going out to dinner, then watching some Mary Poppins before bedtime (sleepover!) Morning brought cinnamon buns and then a walk to the park before the girls headed home. The guys got back to work on the porch.
The rest of Monday has been Ryan and Mark continuing to work on the porch (see tons of pictures below) and I finished all the outlets in the gym. The gym is basically done, although I found a few spots I want to touch up now 🙂
And now for the pictures…
Outlets and covers all on!Gym just about finished!
And the porch project, no idea what the order is but I have plenty of pictures 🙂
Supporting the roofThe right side is level now!Removing the carpenter ant eaten woodA new cornerWhere'd the deck go?? And the other side is straight!
Maribeth and I got the backyard and side yard all raked up and after all that work, I ended my day by cooking a late lunch and then baking an apple pie for Maribeth’s bday.
Happy Birthday Maribeth!
I didn’t have my regular crust mix so I tried out a new recipe for the crust, the first half tasted a bit sweet so I cut back on the sugar for the second half. Hopefully it’s a nice flaky crust.
And now I’m finally putting my feet up for the day and the guys are still hammering out on the front porch 🙂
On Saturday we had quite a busy day. We had some visitors as well as my sister and her husband who came up for the night.
We worked a bit on the deck and used up the rest of the decking, we didn’t quite close up the gap but it’s down to about 12 inches.
Some new supports to help get rid of the sag.New decking down!stained
We had our night visitor again so we have little critter foot prints across the wet stain AGAIN. Next time I’m putting up barbed wire for the night!
Aimee and I spent the evening up in the sewing room after dinner working on halloween costumes. I got Georgia’s Gypsy costume finished up with Aimee’s help on the belt. I was quite happy with this one, it was fun. The only problem was that the belt is made of a plastic-y material that can’t be ironed which was a pain. It looks like fake leather though so it’s a nice affect.
Gypsy costume finished.
Sunday was the girls’ birthday party so after breakfast we headed over to Uncle Pete’s house for lunch, presents and cake. Georgia got her costume – the other two will get theirs on Friday…
Georgia the Gypsy for 2010
I’ll post pictures of Maia and Chloe when they try their costumes on later in the week.
When we got home I started right back on the costumes. Chloe’s black cat is just about finished after some planned hand sewing. I wanted to get it ready to bring with me to Becca’s house tomorrow night (I’m staying the night) so I can finish it there.
Black Cat costume - ears and collar left to finish by hand.
Then I started on Maia’s dress. I decided to just cut and sew the bodice, leaving the skirt for Tuesday and Wednesday night.
Pink princess dress top done
So the costumes are on track to be finished by friday at least. It’s a little late this year but they’ll get to do trick-or-treating friday and sunday in them. Then the real question is if I’ll get to working on my costume at all 🙂
Well time to call it a night, I have to get in to work at a decent time since I’m leaving early to watch the nieces – I can’t wait!
This 3 day weekend (for me) did not go exactly as planned. First off I hadn’t been feeling well all week and not taking it easy definitely took its toll on me. Secondly Ryan unexpectedly had to work all weekend. Thirdly – it rained on Friday – a lot!
So let’s see – Friday it rained so there was definitely no painting going on or prep work for painting. I did some shopping and relaxed mostly. When Ryan got home from his leadership retreat we watched some movies since he would be working all weekend.
Saturday it had dried up so I got started on the prep work for painting. I caulked all around the windows and siding of the area we did last year (left side of the house). Unfortunately the caulk I started with takes 7 days to dry before I can sand and paint… oops. When I ran out of caulk I bought a quicker drying caulk but I had already done more than half of the area with the slow dry stuff. So that ruled out painting on Sunday. I did however start sanding under the porch and we decided to just heat gun the paint off the area that we didn’t replace. The sanding was not coming out to my desired smoothness and we tried an orbital sander, a belt sander and a grinder with a sanding pad. The last one was too hard to control and is definitely getting returned.
Caulking finished. Next up a quick sand.
Finally came Sunday – we started by installing our new antenna up on the porch roof and connecting it to the patch panel in the basement. Then Ryan began working and I decided it was a good day to work on the deck. I got 16 boards in by myself, then sanded the 2 sections (from last time and this time), and finally stained them before it rains this week. I’m very excited, I think if we have one more day to work on the deck we can finish the section that’s currently demolished. Almost half way around the wrap around porch!
Porch progress
– quick side note – these pictures were taken in near DARK. My camera is pretty cool and will automatically leave the shutter open longer if it’s dark out (I keep the flash off at all times) so as long as I hold the camera steady I get decent evening shots! This works great since we work on the house until it’s dark.
Another porch view
I ended the day by cleaning, I vacuumed up the porch area (the sanding yesterday and today made a dusty mess) and then I vacuumed the whole house because the little spiders were really getting to me. Now the house is decently clean and I can relax with my book.
