A Work In Progress

Well, since many have been asking for pictures, I finally have a night to upload some onto my blog.  Warning: these photos are not before-and-after photos.  They are before-and-so-far photos.  There is nothing on this post worthy of Pinterest.  Just some shots of our beautiful mess!

 

We began demolition just before Christmas.  So the above photo is of the big bedroom upstairs.  Here is what it looked like on Christmas Eve Eve:
 

 
Ya baby.  It was late, it was dusty, it was messy, and it was the best Christmas present ever.
 

Here is what it looks like this week:
 

 
 It is insulated, vapor barriered and drywalled.  The first run-through has been done with the sander on the floors.

Hello, beautiful 6" pine floors!
 

 
 
Here is the before of the other bedroom:
 

This room we split in half.  On the left is a bedroom, on the right is a bathroom.

Yeech!

 

Left...
 

 
And right.
 

 
But these photos were taken just after Christmas, before I said, "Hey Mark, can we put in a built-in bed in the bedroom?  I saw this idea on Pinerest...."
 

 
So there's my built in bed.
 
And my brother-in-law Steve working on the a closet I thought would be a good plan to add...
 

 
And, "hey Mark, this bathroom just doesn't work well.  Can we move the center wall over 1 foot?"
 

 
So the vanity will be on the left, toilet on the right.  (see the flange in the floor?)

The view from sitting on the can will be of all the cars driving by.  Just think, if you're ever driving by our house, we may be watching you, from our perch on the throne.
 
View of the tub from the window...
 
(tub source: Oakville bulk trash night.  Oh yes!)

 
"Oh, and let's take out this old closet and put laundry in instead." 
Upstairs hallway (where the laundry will go)
 

 
Laudry area (looking into the bathroom)
 

 
We actually plan to put in a temporary kitchen in this space.  We have about 8 feet.  So I will have a kitchen, bathroom and 2 bedrooms to move into.  Then we can take our time doing the main floor.
 
It'll kind-of be like camping in our attic.  I think it will be a cozy adventure!
 
My role in all of this:
1.  Take care of kids.
2.  Keep Mark and whoever else might be at the house that day fed, snacked, and watered.
3.  Clean.  I clean.  and clean and clean and clean some more.  I clean the progress.  I clean the downstairs.  I organize the tools and supplies.  I clean out our cars.  I clean our other house.  I organize our lives to keep Mark going.  I clean all the dirty dusty clothes.  I clean my girls grubby hands and black socks after a day at the new house.  I help haul out garbage cans full of rubble.  I clean up the dishes from feeding 6 guys lunch.  I clean the black boogies out of my nose.  Yuck!
4.  I plan.  I draw floor plans on graph paper.  I call for the cistern to be cleaned, for the septic to be pumped, for the financing for the bank, the paperwork for the lawyer, I apply for the permits, call for quotes on roofing, I plan meals... and the list goes on. 

I like to sweep.  I do a lot of it.  Aren't I styling?!
 

 
And part of the planning is standing in the space and saying, "You know what Mark?  I don't like that wall there.  Can we take it down?"

Hold it.  Let's get a close up look of that face.

That look is all too familiar.

But an hour later...

Bye-bye, wall.  Ah, we need a railing.  No toddlers up here until we figure that one out.

"Mommy?  Me come up?"
"No no girls - there's just a 11 foot gaping hole in our house now...."
So they keep playing.  In the room with the woodstove.  No matter how many times I said "Girls, don't touch the woodstove, it's very hot", Hannah still had to touch it.  She'll never touch it again.

They are so good at playing.  Sometimes it's hard to get them to come home with me. 
"No!  I want to stay at the new house!"  We have some toys there that they don't have at home.  This is key.
Trust me sweetie, you don't want to stay at the new house.  The furnace is low on oil, and it gets pretty darn cold at night.

On Saturday we had a few extra hands.  The boys started on demolishing the main floor.  This is the master bedroom.  The great part is, all of those ceiling joists came down and they cut them up for firewood.  That'll keep our house warm for a couple of weeks.

What these East end scallywags won't do for a free lunch and homemade cupcakes.


So that's the progress on our project.

Christmas this year was pretty busy.  That whole week was a bit of a blur.  Let me share some heartwarming photos of our Christmas with you.

Every Christmas Eve we go to Bowmanville to spend with Mark's family.  We usually go on a walk.  Here's a photo of the brothers putting in their 'time' with the kids so that later we would let them play a board game.

 
The girls got new owl hats from my sister-in-law, Laura.  They are so in love with these hats.

 
Playing with their new toys on Christmas day.
They were so content to just play.  "I want to stay home and play" has been a very common phrase since Christmas.

 
And on Saturday, we had Christmas celebration with my family.  Here is Grandpa trying out the new tunnel.

This tunnel was a riot.

And finally, on a closing note, on the Monday before Christmas I lost my Opa.  We went to visit him on Monday night, and a few hours later got a phone call that he had passed away.  Here is Oma with Hannah, sitting on his bed.  We sang songs, and the girls kept saying, "more song?" 

 
This is my Opa.  This was taken about a year ago.  I had the privilege of reading a poem I had written about my Opa at the funeral. 

 

My Opa loved building projects.  He would have loved to see us work on our new house.  He was a wonderful Opa and we are going to miss him a lot.

 

Well that is all for tonight.  I had a lot of news to catch up on.  Until next week!