Building Project

Some of you will remember the small house/shed on the side of our property. It was very old, full of junk, and starting to come apart, so we decided to tear it down and rebuild it into a more usable space.

...tearing it down... (definitely the best part)

Here's a little video of the tearing-down process. Dad is having WAY too much fun with the "digger" (as John calls it).

A friend of ours got us started on the building while he was in town. In the two days he was with us, we got the floor and three walls up!

a little help from Uncle Paul

admiring their work

...getting ready to lift wall #3...

...half way there...

...closer...

We did it!

Here is how it looks so far. It still needs quite a lot of work, but I wasn't sure how long it would be until it's all finished, and I had all these great pictures just waiting to be blogged... :)

Our "New" Kitchen

We had our counters replaced with new lamenent in January, and we've just lately added the last finishing touches: new paint for the cupboards, new sponging on the top strip above the kitchen and a new curtain. It looks sooo much better now. Wish we had "before and after" shots, but we didn't think to take pictures of our "old" kitchen, so all we have are "after" shots... :)

Dad tore out all the old counters, made new counters and put the lamentant on, Mom did the green stamping/painting strip across the top of the kitchen, scrubbed and sanded all the cupboards, did most of the cupboard painting, and I... um... let's see... I think I kept Sam out of the way for a couple hours one time...

You can tell Carrie was the one that took these pictures... she is always going for the "best" angle, there's no such thing as "just taking a quick picture for the blog" :) :)

Catching up...

It's been a while since I've blogged, so I thought I'd catch up on what's been going on around here... starting back in December :)

This Christmas, Carrie and I got to be apart of the Singing Christmas Tree. We both had a wonderful time, and met lots of very nice people! It was our first time in an actual "choir" so we were both nervous, but everything went very well. We were both placed in the alto section (alto is such a fun part to sing!) and I even got the solo part I had tried out for.

Pictured: top picture - Joanna is fourth from the left in the middle row, picture below - Carrie is second from the left on the bottom row

We also had a very nice Christmas. On Christmas Eve we attended our church's Christmas Eve service and then went caroling at the Nursing Home. On Christmas Day we had our cousins and grandparents over for Christmas dinner.

Here Sam is modeling the slippers he got for Christmas. He loved them and didn't want to take them off!

opening presents on Christmas morning...

Last week, Dad replaced all of our kitchen counters and put on new laminate. It looks very nice, now!!

Here, Carrie is helping Dad fit the new counter into place. (Dad made all of the new counters!)

While Dad was gluing the counters and laminate into place, he taped up a sheet to separate the living room from the dining room, and we all went into the living room and watched movies while the glue dried. Our sheet-wall (sorry... no pictures) worked pretty well, and so far none of us are showing any severe signs of brain-damage from the toxic fumes... :)


And here's our "new" kitchen! :) Now we just need to repaint the cupboards...

..Excitement over, we are all settling back into our school routine now. I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Years!