Weeks 5 and 6 of Working on New House

While we did take off for a work/play trip during part of week 5, we did end up accomplishing some work during these weeks.

We have been working usually 5 nights a week, after supper but before (late) bedtime.  But Saturdays are when we get a big chunk of uninterrupted work done...as we're normally there for 8-10 hours on those days. 

So, here is what we accomplished during weeks 5 and 6 of working on the new house...

I finally (Hallelujah!) finished taking down the wallpaper in the dining room. 

What in the world would I have done if it had been full wallpaper, and not just border???  I shudder to think.  

I got a little crazy/over exuberant on the last night when I had only a couple feet left, and sliced my pinkie with the scraper.  Jas - and duct tape - to the rescue!

And then Dr. Kathy came back for (her) Round 3 of painting.  (She volunteered - of her own freewill -for each of these painting sessions, which is totally kind of her and such a blessing to us.)  She and I went out to the house one night by ourselves (until 10 p.m.!) and got the first coat of paint on the whole room in about 2.5 hours.

Here is a "before" picture of the de-papered dining room...

...and here is the "after":

We matched this celadon-ish color to the color that they already had in the kitchen, that we *love*.   Seriously, this color makes me smile.  Since we didn't choose this color off a paint chip (like our other paint colors), we just let their computer match it to the kitchen color, we don't know the name for it.  So Dr. Kathy came up with a name for this color: Peaceful Meadow.  Love it!

While we were out there last Monday night, Dr. Kathy and I also got to talk about ideas for arranging the furniture in the family room.  I told her what I was thinking...along with my hesitations about my current plan.  Well, she came up with a much better arrangement...

...and I'm totally planning to take her suggestions.  Thank you, Dr. Kathy!

In the kitchen, at the end of week 4 Jas had the top half of the wall between the kitchen and family room totally down.  

Next, he built a frame over the stove to re-attach the hood/vent:

The next step was actually venting the stove up and out through the ceiling and the roof.  Whoever hooked the hood up, vented it into the attic, NOT up and out through the roof.  Uh-oh...not good.

So, Jas went to town with his sawzall, and ruler and cut holes to vent the hood properly:

Looking up, and seeing daylight...a good thing.

The children have been such a help lately, but don't worry Lao Lao and Nai Nai, we would never let them do anything dangerous..

...like stand on the top of a counter.  With a drill.

That would just be foolish...and asking for trouble.

Ahem.

So, Jas had much fun venting the hood.

As you might imagine, venting it through the roof, required getting up on the roof.  

But don't worry, Nai Nai and Lao Lao...

...we would never allow the children to get up there.  Not us.

But, finally...this project was complete.

And when it rained that night and some the following day and we did not have water leak into the kitchen, Jas decided that he had, in fact, done a very good job on this particular project!

This Saturday was a perfect weather day for some of the (much) yard work that was needing to be done.  

First, I will show a picture of the beautiful rose I found tucked away near the playhouse:

I took this picture to show some of the cute little picket fence that is in the back yard.  

The fence is adorable.

But is is falling down in places.

And it cuts our back yard way smaller than it actually is.  It excludes more than an acre of our property.

I took this picture from one back corner of our property.  Everything you see between the taller stuff on the left (not ours) and the picket fence is also ours...and we're going to need ALL of it for the big chickens/goats/garden/fruit trees plans we have:

But fencing issues are further down on the priority list.  THIS day, the yard really needed mowing!  And weeding.

This is the area between the sunroom/playroom and the pool.  AKA "The Jungle"  

With the temps heating up lately, the yard went crazy over the past few weeks.

Look at this weed next to Jas' workshop...it was almost as tall as me!

Lily Kay got out in the front yard and helped me pull weeds before I mowed.  First, we had to have some lessons.  I knew we needed lessons when LK asked, "What is a weed?"  

But she did a great job, and we had a lot of fun doing this together.  I wish I had taken pictures of her hard at work.  She has asked countless times since then when she and I can pull weeds together again.  Seriously.  

One precious thing I want to remember from our time out there pulling weeds together:  LK was a little behind me and rattled something off, and I missed most of it, "...............pro-puh-tee?"

"What, Lily Kay?  What did you say?"

Turns out she was asking about a particular specimen she was contemplating pulling:  "Is this supposed to be in the pro-pu-tee???"  (Property)

I love mowing.  It is so peaceful.  Well, as peaceful as you can get riding on a piece of machinery that is working at hearing-loss inducing decibels.  (We have a hand-me-down riding mower that is at least 12 years old - maybe much older - and we are so thankful for it!)

Another big thing that happened during these two weeks is that we had our pool converted from a chlorine pool to a salt water pool - which we are more comfortable with our children swimming in.

I have no idea (yet!) what all those pipes and gauges do and mean.  But I will. 

And, spur of the moment, the children took their first dip in our new pool while we were there working all day Saturday.  

Ummmm....I think they liked it...

....and had fun!

We weren't even thinking about the children swimming that day, but the girls happened to have their swim suits  (after some great time they spent earlier in the day with Mrs. Marissa!)...but the three boys weren't prepared that way.  

They only swam for about 20 minutes, and then got out.  As it warms up more, I know they will spend hours and hours out there!


I snapped this pic of Daniel and LK together on Saturday afternoon/early evening.  I love. this. picture:

But when you look at the whole pic (instead of the version I cropped in PicMonkey) you get the full effect:

Yes, that would be garbage bags my children have on.

What else are you supposed to play with when you spend hours and hours at the new house...and there is no TV?

We think we are getting to the point where we can go ahead and actually move in.  Notice I didn't say "we are getting to the point where we're done with the work" (the "work" will go on for years!).  

But the actual move-in date we're planning for is May 18th.  

Anyone want to come schlepp boxes (and furniture) for a couple of hours that morning?