The rellies are coming, the rellies are coming

Also know as - my house is a disaster from construction, we have had a slam packed weekend of fun, I have too much to do and I keep sitting down to knit, check blogs, e-mail,Facebook and any one thing to keep me from actually starting on cleaning my house.

This is partly because on Tuesday we will be getting a 3rd patio door put in the house. So I know it is only going to get worse before it gets better.

Today all of the hard work has paid off however, I was visiting with one of our dear neighbors at our church fall festival and she shared that she always thought it was so unfortunate that our house looked so sad from the outside. She also said she had to keep reminding herself that Todd and I are a young couple, and she was once there as well. Now she drives by and smiles. She was not the only one with complements, its amazing living in a small community how everyone keeps tabs on each other. I love it!

We will all soon be keeping closer tabs on another loved one. After a long haul, my grandmother is moving from more than 4 hours away to the town where my parents live, just 30 minutes away from us. She has maculardegeneration and has lived with in 10 miles of where she was born 83 years ago. This transition has taken it's toll on everyone.

It's amazing that even when a family does not bicker or fight how emotionally draining it is to begin caring for your parents as they once cared for you. So knowing that an incredibly challenging time in our summer is soon coming to an end, I need to pull up my big girl knickers, get some sleep and begin the cleansing of home, heart and mind, to stop avoiding and get things done.

Maybe the guests will just look out all of our new windows and enjoy the view instead of looking at my dirty house!

On a side note I was listening to Beyonce "if you like it, then you should have put a ring on it" when Isabelle was done with her bath and doing her usual run around naked time. She stopped, put her hands on her hips and popped one hip out, then started shaking her little butt. It was adorable. Turns out all the girl needs is a beat to start bustin' a move. I'm pretty sure that I was much more of a trouble maker than I remember to deserve a child so spirited as her, not that i would change it even if I could.

Reveal day

We have alot of clean up to do on the inside and 1 more patio door to put in this fall as well as finish off trim and some new siding on the back but we are getting there.

Construction Zone

I apologize for being away for so long... but I promise it will be worth the wait when you see the pictures of the many changes that have happened in the last 2 weeks. Here is a quick photo from exactly 10 days ago... It's really more of a tease.

By the end of this current project we will have put in 2 patio doors, 15 new windows, 5 light fixtures, some new siding, 12 gallons of paint, mucho trim and lots of sweat. We have not done it alone however. Thank you to EVERYONE who came to help us make such quick work of this HUGE transformation... now to try and convince the tax man that it was only minor changes...

Come on in....

This weekend was full of surprises, some good and some bad. Friday Isabelle and I saw the Nina and the Pinta in Hudson and spend the afternoon at the beach with friends only to come home for family front yard camp out.
The family camp out was great. Todd left early on Saturday morning to go into work for a short day and Isabelle and I headed in the house for a normal morning routine about 7 am. It was a short hour later when I looked at the weather and thought I should empty out the tent to avoid soggy sleeping bags from some anticipated rain. While I was loading out the tent Isabelle came out on the step and said, "Mama, there is a bird in the house." She was watching cartoons so I did a little more probing to rule her imagination out. She told me the bird was "flapping its wings" while flapping her little arms. It was at this point, still in my pajama's mind you, that I realized there was potentially a BAT in my house. Isabelle and I ventured in and rounded the corner from laundry area to kitchen when the BAT flew directly at us from the living room.
I grabbed my daughter, ran out of the house, hopped in our car and drove to my brother and sister-in-laws house just 30 seconds away.
We knocked and went in, explained the severity of the situation at my house. YES AT BAT IS SEVER SITUATION-let me clarify I have nothing against bats in the wild and out of doors, as I said we camped the night before. HOWEVER when the WILD ANIMAL enters my house all bets are off. SO my brother in law grabs a tennis racket and goes to our house. After a complete 30 minute search he came back empty handed. I reluctantly took Isabelle home with me after Tim convinced me that the bat had to be in the floor joyces in the bathroom where the false ceiling has not been put up yet. Before leaving Tim hands the tennis racket to 2 year old Isabelle and say, "Izzy, if you see the bat hit it with this." Isabelle takes this instruction like the karate kid listened to Mr. Miyagi.
We went home and tip toed into the house. Isabelle said, "shhh mom, we're hunting bats" (no joke seriously I could not make this us". Once I have stopped laughing and decided things are "safe" Isabelle begins to roam the house with the racket in hand while I remain near the entrance of the house in the laundry room doing some much needed laundry, thank goodness I could look useful while really just staying near the entrance of the house. I call Todd and tell him what is going on and urge him to leave work knowing full well I will have to wait at least 35 minutes until he is home to fix the situation.
While I'm dialing the phone to call my mom and notify her of the red alert at my house Isabelle comes over with the racket and stands next to me and says, "Come here batty, batty. I've got something for you."
I asked while the phone was ringing, "What do you have for the bat?"
"This." she simply replies with a grin while raising the tennis racket.
I almost couldn't speak I was laughing so hard when my dad answered the phone. Seriously who is this kid!
After finished being laughed at by my parents, clearly my natural fear of bats came from them, I moved to the couch in the living room with Isabelle, my knitting, the tennis racket on one side and a blanket covering my lap. Like if I saw the bat I could cover Isabelle and myself and then just stick the racket out and let the bat fly into it. This is how Todd found us when he got home.
Todd found the bat 1.5 hours later. Nuff said about that.

The Bat was not the only new thing in the house this weekend, we have 4 new windows! YEAH! While Todd and his brother installed new windows upstairs Isabelle and I played and continued life as usual on the main level of the house but every time Isabelle hears banging upstairs she would say," Come on in..." I couldn't help but laugh at the irony of that.

Dried Tomato Red

Dried tomato red is the color we will be painting out house in just a week and a half. I can't contain my excitement. We have so many things to do to get ready for this, not to mention clean the house and keep up on all the other things in life. Regardless we are painting and I believe this project with come with 2 new windows in the house as well! Again much excitement. I'll take pictures to share along the way.

What are you excited about this week?

It's HERE!

The Vanity is here and it's GORGEOUS!

Oh sweet bath tub, how I love thee

This was last Friday morning. The sub floor was down.
And a wall was put up


And this morning we got to sit in the bath tub for the first time!

Words cannot describe how large the bath tub is. I LOVE IT even more today! Literally Todd and I can sit almost side by side. the foreshortening on the photo above doesn't let you see how long the tub actually is.

Yesterday Todd and I spent the afternoon at Home Depot and Menards picking out tile, fixtures and vanities. You will see a lot of progress this week! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

The State of Our Union

As of today I am the bread winner in the family. This is not a surprise or a bad thing by any means. Todd has taken a 5 week voluntary layoff from his job. During which time he is going to FINISH THE BATHROOMS! Did anyone notice the S on the end of bathrooms. That's right PLURAL. God willing my ever so handy husband is going to finish the main level bathroom for which this blog was originally started and to make over our upper level bathroom as well. (I just about crapped my pants when he mentioned that because we have not been able to use the shower in the main level for well over a year. AND since August we have only had 1 room that even resembled a bathroom.) So cross your fingers, toes, legs and arms that a miracle will happen in our home in the next month.

The other part of Todd's being home that I am really going to enjoy is not having to rush around in the morning to get Isabelle and I ready to head off to work and daycare. Isabelle will still be going to daycare but Todd can get her dressed and fed all while I get ready for work. That and we can spend a little time together every morning as a family. Secretly I'm more excited for this than my bathrooms, which I have learned to live with.

Keep the Home Fires Burning

This is a picture of what will be the newest addition to our home. We currently heat our house with a much smaller red central boiler wood stove. But today we were offered a great deal to up grade our stove to a bigger one, a much bigger stove. I know that bigger isn't always better but it is in this case because now Todd will only have to go and stoke the fire 1 maybe 2 times a day. Where as right now our little red he definitely checks 3 times a day if not more. This will also be nice for our wonderful relatives that stoke the fire while we are out of town. (WHICH IS MUCH APPRECIATED!). SO Welcome bigger stove we will appreciate your warm heat in just a week or so!