Home Update!

Oh my goodness....where to begin! This whole house thing has definitely been a trying experience. Don't get me wrong we are SO blessed that it turned out this way, but it has for sure stretched me in ways like never before. 

When I left off last time they had just stopped working since they needed to have the engineer figure out the whole mess with the backside of our house being flush. I honestly can't remember how long it took for them to figure this all out. 

Their fix for the whole issue was to have the workers cut plywood the same dimensions as the studs and nail that in and then put a full sheet of plywood over the top of that. The above picture is the wall right outside our sliding glass door. 

This is the area under the deck with all the sheeting on it. 

Here is the scaffolding. 

It was a bit difficult to come down our stairs unless you wanted to do the limbo every time. 

Here's a close up shot of the additional strip of plywood being nailed directly over the studs. 

Here's the whole wall ready for full sheets of plywood. 

The area under the deck was the first section that finally got siding put on it. 

Oh my this was such a welcome sight. It looks so nice and they even did these squares to really finish out where the lights were going. 

Basement portion all sided, new sheeting on the first floor, vapor barrier in place and new windows installed. The window on the far right is the window to our office I was actually working at my desk when they were taking that window out. They guys found out that it was only being held in by 3 screws. They were so shocked. Of course I was praising the Lord that nothing bad ever happened because the kids have sat in this window looking out at the backyard many times. 

So this might be TMI, but it's too funny to not share. One day the guys were working and I came home from running errands and needed to go potty. I went up to my bathroom to use the facilities and got a little surprise. As I was sitting there I realized they were working right outside my bathroom window (that's the younger guys arm right outside the window) which is directly behind the toilet. Praise God for frosted window glasses, but still it was quite hilarious. The above picture was what I texted to Michael with the caption...."So this just happened".

In the midst of all the working going on at our house we decided it was the perfect time to get some things done that we had always wanted to do. One of which for Michael has always been to bulk up the south peaks on the house. They are typically supposed to be 8 - 10 inches, but ours were 6 inches and it always bothered him. While shopping at the hardware store...my favorite place EVER...I wandered over to the front door section. When we first moved into our house we had a whole fiasco with our original front door. The short version is we bought a door knob that didn't work with the door, we tried to cut new holes in the door and patch the old holes which lead to us making a late night trip to the hardware store to buy a new door. But through the years I've really wanted to get a front door with windows on the top. Our foyer isn't the brightest and I just thought the little bit of light that would come through would be helpful. 

So I found a door. It wasn't the exact one I had wanted, but it was a good compromise since Michael wanted something more intricate. Then when I noticed that the type of glass design would match the existing glass on either side of our front door I was sold. There was a small dent on the door so we contemplated going to a different Lowe's, but then when I talked with the guy helping us he got his manager and they gave us a deal on the door. It was originally $230, but we ended up paying $190. 

We originally came for about 20 dollars in the materials and we ended up spending a LOT more. This is how Michael feels about more work!

But he loves me so he's really okay with it! 

The back side of the house all sided!!! 

Even the area above the garage! 

And the deck with our new sliding glass door in place. 

During this whole process Charlie's kitty deck had to be taken down and rebuilt I think at least 3 times. 

Time to do the front door! 

When we bought the first replacement front door we just bought the door and then put it in on the hinges. The new front door was already pre-hung so we needed to remove the whole frame. Unfortunately the whole door and the side glass was one unit.  

So that meant that Michael had to use a jigsaw and guide it around trying to be careful not to cut too much or too little. 

He's amazing! 

Old front door out! 

New front door coming in! 

This is my life people! This is my life! So much drama!!! 

I keep saying (and praying) that one day they will like each other! Also this is absolutely going to be one of those pictures we recreate in 10-20 years. 

Look at that beautiful window!!! 

I love the view from the outside with the foyer light on. I love that it's perfectly centered in the window. 

View from the inside. It's just crazy to me out perfectly the glass on the door matches the glass on the sides. I have seriously despised the glass on the sides for so long, but now it just goes and it doesn't actually look dated anymore. 

Now onto the outside work. You can see the dumpster in the background getting pretty full! 

Here is the new beefed up board. It really did make a big difference for the curb appeal. 

I was up the roof the whole time with Michael while he was working. Then when he'd go down to cut the boards I'd sweep a little bit of the moss off the roof. Here he is cutting the boards in the driveway. 

To get the boards on the upper peak we ended up having to go up to the very top of the house. That ladder was quite scary to climb. 

Here's the view of all the materials still in the driveway. 

Here's the view of the trailer in the backyard that has all the aluminum siding in it. 

This is the view from the very top of our house of the new construction going on in our area. This used to be all trees.

Right in front of this house there used to be a service road that lead to the water tower that's not in the view of this picture...it was crazy how quickly it all came down. 

They are putting in 67 houses! 

Here's the view if we look to the west. 

If we only had a three story house! 

After the backside of the house was complete they moved to the north side. They did find some rotten boards in this section that had to be replaced. 

The backside with no scaffolding! 

Here's the view of the north side of the house with the sheeting finished on the basement section. 

They also came around and started working on the front of the house. Here's all the new sheeting. 

This was the side that started this whole mess and for a time I honestly thought it was going to be the last section to get worked on.

Here's a close up view of the old windows so you can see how poorly they were installed. First off if you look at the left edge of the window right in the middle you can see that line going all the way down. That used to have flashing connected to it and they cut it off. That's how far the window is really supposed to be pushed into your house. Also look about halfway up the left side of the window between the window and the plywood and you'll see the screw that is holding the window in. That is not the proper way to attach windows. 

Here's a side view so you can see that our windows are only actually in by a hair. This was the area where there used to be brick so it wasn't this noticeable before, but once that was gone it was crazy! 

Scaffolding on the north side of the house getting ready to work on the first floor. 

On October 12th the dumpster got switched out. 

It was fun watching them load it up. 

One of the extras we asked for was for all the windows that can be seen from the street to be framed it. 

 I love how finished they look. 

Finally the side that started it all was getting worked on. 

Another thing we chose to do ourselves was add two more lights to the front of the house. We'd already had one to the left of the front door and one to the left of the garage door. I always wanted another matching one on the right side of the garage doors and Michael decided to put another one all the way on the north side of the front of the house. So now there are 4 lights and they are spaced apart by about 20ft each. 

Michael did so good with the peaks. I love the middle decorative piece he put in. Another thing we asked them to do was put that nice chunky belly board right before the peaks start. 

This is the bathroom window on the first floor....they accidentally ordered it with clear glass instead of frosted glass. We are still waiting for them to get the frosted glass and put the new panes in. Fun fun! 

Here is the north side of the house all finished. Michael chose to not put the 8 inch boards on the peak on this side of the house because you really can't see it from the street. 

This side of the yard we call the mountain. I would really like to actually do something with it like a rock staircase and some nice landscaping, but that is seriously on the bottom of the list right now.

Another extra we asked for was hemlock boards for the soffits. They are above the deck and above the overhang area on the first floor just outside the front door. They are absolutely beautiful!

This is another angle of the side of the house where the wind damage occurred. 

Now it was time for the second story on the front of the house. All that black stuff is not to code! 

It's funny how some parts have insulation and some don't. We didn't worry about that at all though. 

Plywood and vapor barrier in. At one point there was some of the vapor barrier paper hanging over the edge and it would flap in the wind. It got SO bad one night because of a storm I could not sleep. I ended up sleeping on the couch it was so bad. The next day I had Michael tack it down so I could get some rest. 

All sided!!! 

Now this is a beautiful sight!!! No materials in my driveway after over 3 months! 

This little tiny wall was actually the last portion to be sided. This is also part of the sheer wall that is causing a whole lot of complications to this process. 

Long story short....this is the wall that is between the garage and house and now it has to be completely covered in plywood on the inside of the garage. This is also the wall where our water heater is and the engineer isn't going to let them piece the plywood in...it has to be full sheets. So they have to remove our water heater in order to do the work and they are going to put us up at a hotel for a minimum of 5 days. That sounds like fun at first, but then when you think about kids having to be in a hotel room for hours on end after school gets out it starts to not sound so appealing. We are thinking about possibly getting an Airbnb so the kids would have more room. Who knows....this part is still all up in the air at the moment. 

When it came to getting new lights I ended up getting 4 fixtures at Costco on sale. They are LED and they are photocell so we don't ever had to worry about turning them on and off. I love them and our house looks so nice from the street. I just can't wait to see our house without a dumpster in front of it and a porta potty in the driveway. 

Since we finally had the light fixtures up I was able to put the flag back out. It had been down since August!!! I love seeing the colors waving in the air. 

Looking so nice!!! 

One more thing we are planning on doing is getting new garage doors. The ones that are on the house are solid wood and they aren't in super great shape. Our plan is to do that before the house gets painted which Michael has already told them we aren't getting it painted until spring time so we have a few months. 

Stay tuned! 

Halloween 2018!

Normally I don't like it when Halloween is on a week day, but if it had to be on a week day it was nice that it was on a Wednesday that had early release!! Michael got off a couple hours early so we were able to head down to Ga-Ga & Pa's early and miss most of the traffic. Yahoo! 

I love this picture!!! 

It can be interpreted in one of two ways...the first being that Owen in all his Halo might has just punched poor Captain America or...second being that Captain America is so annoyed with this arrogant Halo guy shining in the spot light he'd like him to move along already! Either way it's hilarious! 

When we decided that Jack had to be Captain America...again...we could not find his mask. Thankfully Kim's boys had this fabric one that worked and they didn't need it for Halloween. 

Elena of Avalor is all ready and she did not even wear a coat! 

Cute fireman! The best thing about this costume is that it's so warm. The fabric is really thick..perfect for trick or treating! 

Come on already!! Let's get some candy! 

This year it rained almost the whole time. Thankfully it was a light sprinkle really. We went down a street in Ga-Ga & Pa's neighborhood that we've never gone down. There was another house on the main road where they were handing out hot chocolate with whipped cream. It was so nice.

Owen's haul! 

Jack's pile of candy! 

Ella's mound before we took out all the dye candy and traded them for her brothers chocolate candy. 

Zeke's mountain of sugar! 

On Halloween night I let the kids have 6 pieces of candy. After that they can take 2 pieces everyday in their lunch and then they can have another 2 pieces if they finish their dinner. 

After the Fall Festival and Halloween we were left with 9 gallon sized bags of candy! Oh my!

We ended up giving a bag to Michael for work. We also put some stuff in the van in case of emergencies. I got so sick of the bags being on the counter that we finally organized the candy and put them in storage containers in the snack cabinet. 

I'm pretty sure we're going to have enough candy to get us to Easter! 

Riverview Community Fall Festival 2018!

Our church puts on a Fall Festival every year. Last year the weather was amazing. This year.....POURING RAIN for the first 45 minutes. That didn't really stop the kids from coming though.  

I was volunteering at registration so Michael ran the game out of our van. I scored when I was shopping at Target one day. I found this awesome tailgate target game with this target that you can attached to the back of you car and then you throw these two velcro balls at it and they stick....well some of the time they do. If they hit the target with the velcro portion. Michael said it was a big hit and the kids kept coming back time and time again. The best part was it was on clearance for $7!!! 

Meranda had an adorable donut themed car! 

Don dressed his truck up as Cookie Monster and then he got these costumes for him and his daughter Rosie. He also gave out small packs of Oreo cookies since he works for Nabisco. It was so cute! 

Jacob and Elizabeth made their car look like the Hundred Acre Woods. Jacob even made himself ears and a tail like Tigger. Elizabeth was Piglet and Lucy James was the cutest Pooh Bear ever!!! 

Brenda jumped ship for the day and was a Bronco fan with Kim to match her decorations! 

Avery was Cruella Deville and Teresa was a Dalmation puppy! 

The Berg's had a car devoted to Baby Boos. My kids LOVE those things! They are definitely way cuter than the Beanie Babies of my youth. 

Al & Cathie were the best pirates I've seen!!! 

Some of the youth kids worked the snow cone machine. One of the cars was actually giving out hot apple cider and I do mean HOT. So hot I had the genius idea to go over to the snow cone table and I asked for a plain snow cone so I could cool down the cider so the kids could drink it. 

Look at this cute little Prince Charming!!! 

Pastor Andy had a Fiesta car...unfortunately somehow during the coarse of the day it turned into a Fista Car. 

The Keller's manned the popcorn table! 

The Young's had a TMNT car! 

Of course there were lots of volunteers helping out behind the scenes. Like Nathan and John...they were delivering candy to all the cars. 

Here are the cute Dial kids!!! I remember the first time they came with us to the Fall Festival....Lily was just a baby bumble bee and now she's a 2nd grade Batgirl!!! 

Of course I said..."Say Happy Halloween" so their mouths look funny. Owen wore his Halo costume again, Jack was Captain America...even though he didn't want to be, Ella was Elena of Avalor and Zeke was a Fireman. 

Face painting is fun! 

Owen was a kitty cat....by the time I got home he had already washed it off. 

Zeke wanted to head back to Mr. Cookie Man's car to get more cookies. I figured that he needed to get a picture with Elmo.

It was tons of fun and I'm so happy I wasn't the one running the car this year. :) 

Fall Placemat Craft!

One day on our way home from school Ella really started to notice the leaves on the ground and how pretty they were. She wanted to pick them up...in fact I think she might have picked them all if she could have. 

Future leaf raker business maybe??? 

I had remembered making this craft when I was younger so I thought it would be fun to make with Ella. All we needed was some wax paper, color crayons, a cheese grater and an iron. 

Ella was having fun picking out exactly which ones she wanted to use. 

So many pretty colors! 

Once she had the leaves arranged the way she wanted them on the piece of wax paper, I had her pick a color crayon and I grated some of the crayon all over. Then we put another piece of wax paper on top and ironed it together. Because of the heat it melts the crayon all over the leaves.  

She was so exited she had me email her picture to her teacher. 

She also had enough leaves left over so Zeke could make his own fall placemat too. 

Sadly I think we were supposed to dry the leaves first so they got all wet and gross and we had to throw them away. The kids did get to use them for a couple weeks so that was good.

Capital Lake Field Trip!

Since I'm not working I have been able to volunteer more at school. Still not as much as I'd like, but it's definitely been more than last year. I try to volunteer on Thursday afternoons after I volunteer at church. Thursday is a busy day for me! Owen came home from school in the beginning of October with a chaperone form for an upcoming field trip to Capital Lake in Olympia. Owen told me he wasn't going to go unless I was a chaperone. I love that my 6th grader actually wants me to go with him. 

I had to show up at the school by 8:50 since the buses were leaving at 9am. There are quite a few kids in Owen's class that know me and they love that I know their names. They even are okay if I call them by the wrong name. Haha! Poor Eric I called him Kane because he looks just like another kids that was in Jack's class last year. He was so sweet about it. 

The entire middle school grades were going. Which for our school isn't a ton...it's one class of 6th, one class of 7th and one class of 8th grade. Some of the kids were complaining about the fact that the drive was going to be an hour long! Owen and I were fine though...we chatted and then we both hunkered down in our seat and read our books. It didn't even seem like it had been a whole hour and we were getting off the freeway. I even heard some of the kids say...we're already here!!! 

The buses were parked a couple blocks away from the lake. I thought we were going to be staying there until at least 1 or 2pm, but due to a bus driver shortage we were only able to stay until 12:15. We got there around 10am so we only had 2 hours to look around. 

Capital Lake is a man made lake that's on the back side of the capital building. The reason the kids were there was to observe the lake, write your findings and make suggestions on how to improve it. 

The lake from afar looked nice, but it was really disgusting. There was all this algae and there was even a dead duck and fish just floating on the surface. There was a lot of litter as well. There was a whole section that smelled SO bad....ewwww! 

At first we all were in the same area and what I learned from being a chaperone at Ella's zoo field trip a couple years ago was to not be with everyone. It just gets crazy! Gradually we started walking and so did other groups of kids and chaperones so after a while we were on our own.

I had 4 kiddos from the 6th grade and 3 kids from the 7th grade. The 4 from 6th grade I have known for years, but the other 3 I didn't really know at all. 

It was interesting to hang out with them and see the change in the kids from being around the big group of kids and then being in the small group. There was one person in particular that really changed. At first this person wasn't really into it at all and then as more time past this person let their guard down.

The fall colors were beautiful! 

When we got there I wasn't really given very many instructions other than make sure the kids are back at the bus on time. The kids all had clipboards with a paper that had questions for them to answer. As far as I knew we were just supposed to walk around the lake. 

We made it all around the lake and we had about 30 minutes or so before it was time to go to the bus. That's when I asked to see one of the kids papers and towards the back was a map of the area around the capital with the names of different buildings and monuments. It was a scavenger hunt sort of game. I felt so bad that the kids missed out on this, but no one told me about it at all. The kids were all so sweet and said they were glad we didn't do that. They really liked taking our time walking around the lake. 

There was this hill with a bench on top of it that I sat on and the kids ran around. After a little while another parent chaperone came along and she didn't know about the scavenger hunt either. That made me not feel so bad. We were back on the bus by 12:15 and were on the road shortly after that and back at the school around 1:30pm. It was so fun being with the kids and that says a lot because hanging out with middle school kids wouldn't be something I would think was fun. 

When Owen came home that afternoon he had a card for me signed by almost all the kids. Eric is such a sweet kid....he even told Owen that he has such a cool mom!!! It just goes to show that if you've been a constant in your kid's life at school than the kids that are with them at school also get to know you and they don't think of you as some weird parent. Almost every time I volunteer I hear some kid tell one of my kids that they are so lucky because their mom comes to school. 

Owen has another field trip coming up next week. They are going to the UW to the Seismology Department. That sounds like so much fun! I'm hoping I get to go!