Camping

We’ve been busy!

We went camping this past week. We only went twenty minutes away. It was far enough to have fun but close enough I went home twice a day to take care of the animals and shower.

We lasted three days. The older kids got bored. I understand. We had fun though. We swam the river, played card games, played in the park, played horseshoes, roasted marshmallows, all the usual things. It wasn’t the mountains which I think the kids would have enjoyed a bit more but we needed to stay near home due to having kittens to care for at home as well as a neurotic dog to check in on because well, she has issues. I would have brought her but she hasn’t yet caught on to not barking at everyone who comes near us. Overly protective is she.

The downside of camping was several fold. Bugs. There were wasps. Not the ones like at our house, but wasp like insects that acted like flies. Scared the waddings out of us at first. They came out when the food did so eating was difficult when they were swarming around the sandwich your hand. Trying to eat the sandwich without eating the wasp was a chore. Creepy. When we put the food away they went away.

The flies were a normal level but the mosquitoes came out in force at night. The bug spray didn’t do a whole lot. We were forced to retire to the tents as soon as we could. No lingering at the fire and by the time we went home we looked like we had chicken pox. I had to bring the benadryl cream because while the mosquito bites don’t bother me and Alex, the kids all swell up bad at each bite site.

Alex and I had to make a nightly trek to the outhouse as well. I drank water too late. Not my favorite thing to do, avoid at all costs actually, but luckily there was no smell in the outside like there normally was, thank goodness. I didn’t mind so much the short walk in the middle of the night because the stars. Millions of stars and the milky way was very visible with just a sliver of a moon shining down. We took the rain flap off the second night so we could see the stars. There were quite a few shooting stars and it made for a good night.

The first night I got three hours of sleep. I was a nervous wreck. I kept thinking I was hearing things with my over active imagination running wild. Alex and the boys did hear the coyotes howling throughout the night. I didn’t but kept imagining all sorts of wild creatures. Then, some college kids or teenagers decided to pull into the park around 2:30 a.m. I wasn’t asleep and could hear them making noise in the next campsite over. They had their radio going and the beat of the song sounded suspiciously like a heartbeat. The headlights, too, were obnoxious. They finally left an hour later. I was able to calm my thoughts of being murdered in our tent (hahaha, I really am ridiculous) and was able to get three hours of sleep. Later in the day when Alex took the kids to play in the river I laid an air mattress under a tree and slept for a couple hours.

The campsite we originally wanted was taken so we made do with a different one. It was pretty big which was good because we needed the room. A ten person tent is huge but will only sleep ten people if you are on the ground side by side and squished. And where are you supposed to put your gear? I really can’t sleep like that. If we can’t sleep in a camper then air mattresses it is. We had to get a second ten person tent. Five people in each and it worked well. We all slept so well that second night. Alex and I have realized that our bed at home is too hard. The air mattress was so comfortable that I slept the whole night without tossing and turning. At home I move a lot because my shoulder hurts. So we’re going to get a mattress topper to hopefully alleviate the symptoms of a hard bed.

The river was the highlight of the trip. Our campsite was near the dock and the kids loved to jump off from it into the water. The river was very slow moving and not very deep for the most part. Noah loved it and with his life jacket was practically a fish. It was very hot outside so it was a good way for the kids to all cool off. The big boys walked to the other side and up the river a ways. They tried to cross back over but the water turned out to be deeper in that spot. Michael managed to swim across and was good but Benjamin struggled and then panicked. He started screaming help as he bobbed up and down. Alex and I were to far away but a young man thankfully dove off the dock and went out to save him. I am forever grateful for his quick actions. We are going to get some more life jackets and definitions take the kids to swimming lessons. I grew up in swimming pools and swimming all summer for twenty years but forget that my kids haven’t. The river is still fun and Benjamin is okay and much more cautious now. We’ll just have to work on building up our skill set.

One last thing. We took our 72-hour kits to camp with us. Alex insisted and it was a good thing but also a disaster. I now have to repack all of them which means going through and making sure they all have what they need with food, clothes, and emergency supplies. We found out that a few of thr batteries in the kids flashlights had corroded and were completely useless. The food was mostly okay but due to being in the gararage and in extreme heat and cold, I think I’ll choose differently this next time. I’m glad we took them out when it wasn’t an emergency. But if it had been we would have made it work. Something is better than nothing.

Camping is a lot of work but I’ll do it again because I did have some fun with the kids. I think I just don’t do it often enough so I am still learning. Next year I’ll plan more trips and maybe we can go farther away. But I’m still kind of nervous to go to the woods because of bears. Turns out there is a black bear in residence less than a mile away here in town so now I’ve got that to worry about. Don’t even have to go camping to worry about bears.

When it Shakes You Up a Little

Yesterday my kids said it was such a great day. I am so glad that for them it was. They had fun, played, went to school, went to watch their brother play soccer, play video games, go to other extra activities and in general be kids. Untouched by tragedy or fear.

Yesterday was a hard day for Eastern Idaho. It started in the morning and just kept going. On my newsfeed a live newscast of a school shooting in Rigby, Idaho was going on. I watched hoping my niece and nephew were okay because they go to that school. I felt for the parents who didn’t know of their kids were okay. I felt for the poor little girl who had to have been going through some seriously hard times to have resorted to such drastic measures. I felt for her family. I was heartbroken for the whole thing. It put a huge damper on the day. Miraculously the two kids and adult all survived.

The day wasn’t over yet.

Later I checked the newsfeed and there was a car on fire that had been hit by a train. We drove by the wreckage on our way home as it happened just a couple miles south of where we live. Turns out it was my friend’s brother. He is in the ICU struggling for his life now with burns, lacerations, and hopefully no internal bleeding. I added them and their family to my constant prayers.

The day wasn’t over.

When I got home after checking the newsfeed (maybe I should stop doing that) there was more bad news. There is a bridge about two miles from my house that people like to jump off from and into the river. Usually college students from the local university. Every. Single. Year. Every year without fail since we’ve been here one or two people drown. Yesterday three young men in their 20’s jumped into the river but only two came out. Last I heard they hadn’t found his body.

All these tragedies were avoidable. Poor choices. I was aching emotionally and mentally just couldn’t take it anymore. I prayed and told Heavenly Father that I couldn’t handle it anymore, I told him, “I can’t do it, they are in your hands.” Immediately I hear in my mind, “They have always been in my hands.”

They have always been in my hands.

Heavenly Father

I started to tear up. It was true. God is aware of all that was going on that day. I thought on that and it applies to all of us. We are always in his hands.

Lauren asked me that night after I told my kids the story, “How do you know it was God talking?” I gave her my standard reply, “God and me, we talk. All the time.”

So even though it was a rough day and there will be more rough days to come, always remember God is in control, pray, hug your family, and be grateful for all of your blessings.

Hard Things and Miracles

My poor sister. Lately life has put her through the wringer.

I’ll give you a quick run down. Jobs pulled out from under them, lawsuits, their baby girl has unexplained seizures, son has to have emergency surgery, they get a new job and have to enter the bidding war on the other side of the country that is house buying and finally get one, she is pregnant with child number three and the latest ultrasound shows signs of Down’s Syndrome. This is the short list and this is just in four years.

A couple weeks ago she mentioned to us that her son wets his diapers to overflowing constantly. She did everything she could to contain the mess and constantly cleaning it up wears on anyone.

Enter the miracles.

They called to make an appointment because they were concerned. Nothing for weeks. They called again and got the appointment moved up. They called again yesterday because their son was acting lethargic. They told the nurse the symptoms. The nurse told them to go to the hospital immediately. So they do. They do bloodwork. His bloodsugar was over 600. Normal numbers are around or below 100. He has type 1 diabetes.

My youngest sister, a different one, wanted a dog. She just moved to her own place and she wanted a dog. Not just any dog, a Spanish Water Dog. There are only three breeders in the country that they could find. One of them is in Wisconsin, an hour from my other sister’s new house and just had a litter. The puppy was ready to be picked up this week. So the plans were made and my parents drove to Iowa to visit my brother and then went to Wisconsin to visit my sister as well as to pick up the puppy.

What are the odds that they would be there in the right place at the right time to help my sister when she needed it most? They were able to be there to help alleviate the stress of finding a sitter for their daughter overnight while they were in the hospital as well as offer comfort in person.

My sister, who hates dogs, said she was grateful that they were there to get the dog then.

Miracles happen. They might seem like coincidences but when so many things are orchestrated and converge at the same time and place, it is not possible to be a coincidence, it is a miracle. We need to recognize God’s hand in our lives. It happens way more often than I know we are aware of.

My sister and her family have a lot to deal with now and for the long term. But as hard as it is, it is good to know they are being watched over.

The doctors were able to bring his blood sugar down and now my sister and her husband have to go through diabetes bootcamp to learn how to handle all of this. Prayers for them would be appreciated. We are so glad they caught this early.

Teach a Child

The other day I was shocked. In a good way.

We were talking as a family before bed and I think we had read scriptures and were just talking before family prayer. Benjamin said he’d had a hard time sleeping because he didn’t feel well and so he said a prayer and then read the scriptures. I was flabbergasted. He is thirteen and puts on this tough front and it wasn’t something I would picture him doing. He pushes back on a lot of stuff but what do you know, he’s been paying attention.

The next night I was tucking the big boys in (just a hug and saying goodnight) and they said, “Last night we were reading the scriptures together. We started at the beginning again and it is so cool!” They then proceeded to tell me what they thought was cool.

As a mom, that is a high point. All those years of effort and to see fruit of your labor is validation that you’ve been doing something right. It was so nice. I’d cry but I’m still reeling from it.

When my oldest was just one year old the Spirit told me several times, very unmistakably, “Teach him to pray.” I took it seriously and did what I was told. It’s nice to see what comes of it. I taught the first one and we kept teaching every night. Every day. This is probably the only thing I have ever been consistent with; scriptures and prayer every single night. We started the habit when our oldest was just a baby.

We started as a challenge given by the prophet fifteen years ago to read the entire Book of Mormon before the end of the year. New Year’s fireworks were going off as we finished the last page, but we did it. And we haven’t stopped since. When we had little kids we would read just three verses a night. We gradually, over the years, read more and more verses and depending on the night we’ll read a verse or a chapter. We still have little kids and their attention span is still short but the habit is there whether they are paying attention or not.

So start small, make it a habit. “By small and simple things are great things brought to pass”.

Ay yi yi

Well, the weekend of flicking electricity was fixed. Mostly. So we thought. I called and left a message and they came out first thing Monday morning. The electrician who came out thought the guy who had installed the outlets had crossed the wires. I’m thinking I will go with a different company next time? He was the apprentice I guess. But, the breakers, we found out, were corroded as well. The electrician tried to put a new one in but because the electrical panel is so old it didn’t fit quite right and they don’t make the kind my house has anymore. Great.

They thought it was all fixed and they went out to their vans. I proceeded to start plugging things in and guess what? The outlets didn’t work. What?!!

I ran outside and luckily they were still there. I called them back in. Well, they thought it was a breaker popped and worked on it for a few minutes. They came back in and said we were going to need a new panel. Alex and I already knew that but wanted to put it off until later. We can’t anymore. There was electricity buzzing and acting weird due to the corroded breakers. We have no choice but to get it replaced.

I asked them to go turn on what they could and then they would be back to replace it the next day. Well, they turned the entire panel off and left. We had no electricity at all. What the heck? And they left the attic access panel open and cold air was coming into my house.

Up to this point, the company has been very professional. Yesterday I was not pleased.

I called my friend and asked if we could spend the day since we had no power. I didn’t want to risk turning it on. She was gracious enough to let us one over. And it was all my kids, too, because it was presidents day. It was an enjoyable day.

Alex came home and we turned on the power to the basement and furnace. The kids all stayed downstairs for the night, having a sleepover in the family room. Alex and dealt with the dark upstairs. The electrical downstairs was still blinking. I am hoping that the panel replacement fixes all the weird blinking and shorts. And then- cross my fingers- I hope, hope, hope, that all the issues are fixed. Its been a ridiculous winter and I just want it to be done. Can we just have it all fixed and working proper from here on out?

We’ve fixed the plumbing, electrical, leaks, insulation, windows, the basement, the water heater, etc. There is so much in this house we have fixed it isn’t even funny. I had a thought that it might be nice to live in a rental and not have to deal with these issues. But I remember thr rental days and I really disliked them I was always nervous that the kids would ruin something, I couldn’t change anything, stuff still went wrong and I had to try and get management to fix it. I couldn’t pick colors or have what I liked. So even though it is kind of a pain being a homeowner, I do enjoy being able to work on stuff and fix things and make it mine. And we have a yard and garden and can have animals and such where rentals usually frown on that stuff. And do you know how much a rental for ten people costs (if you can find one that will even rent to that many people) versus how much my actual mortgage is? No contest. We’ve got a better deal owning the home. Even with all the messes we’ve had to deal with this past year. I wouldn’t trade it.

So, I’ll let you know if we get this all straightened out or if we have more drama.

Installation and Issues

I know you are all dying to see some progress pictures. They are coming.

So Thursday our fridge was delivered. They called before coming and I told them that the fridge wouldn’t fit unless they took off the fridge doors. When they got to my house they saw the front door and said it should fit. Yes, through the front door, but no, not through the entry door to the kitchen. Ohhhh. They saw what I meant and took the doors off the fridge.

Right as they were leaving the electricians finally showed up. It was almost noon. They got right to work and 6 hours later they had it all done. But we tested the disposal and it didn’t work. The other guy who had already left had installed it but hooked it up different from what it was supposed to be. Quick fix. It all looked good and we thought it was.

We went to plug in the fridge into the outlet that we had made for it and it didn’t work. We plugged it into another one and it did. We checked all the outlets and four of them didn’t work. Great. We figured we’d call in the morning to have them fix it.

Later that night, actually morning, we woke up to our alarm clock blinking and flickering. I checked my phone for the time and it was dead when it had been half full at bedtime and had been charging. It was 4 a.m. we turned on the bathroom light and it was strobing, and if we turned on one light the other stuff in the room would turn off. What the heck. If the electrical hadn’t been worked on we would have thought the house was haunted. We unplugged everything and went back to sleep.

In the morning we tried to figure it out. We thought maybe it was our high school bathroom fluorescent light fixture in the bathroom causing problems. It turned out not to be, as we found out when we unplugged it, and we installed a new, more modern fixture. About time we got rid of that ugly thing.

We checked all the outlets again but things had gotten worse. The outlets still didn’t work. The master bedroom and bathroom electricity was acting normal and then it would fritz, blink, flicker, turn on and off. Then the kitchen would do stuff too. The power would work, then it wouldn’t and with stuff we thought was fine. The dishwasher wouldn’t stay on, the light in the fridge would flicker. It is a concerning mess that wasn’t happening until the electricians came so I’m am for sure expecting them to fix it and I will not let them charge me for it.

But other than that it has been wonderful. We installed the ovens. I will not do that again. It was so heavy and so hard to do. But it is in and we’ve used them a couple times. We made pizza and used all the ovens at once. Dinner was done all at once instead of dragging it out for over an hour waiting for one pizza at a time. I know it sounds ridiculous and spoiled but it was still, so nice to cut the baking time down by so much. We made valentine’s cookies and the three batches were done in 10 minutes instead of half an hour. Time saver!

She was so helpful.

They weighed so much. We used a car jack to lift it up and slide it it.

Alex put the cooktop in place but we can’t use it until we hook up the gas which we won’t do until the counters are in.

I finally got a new fridge. It has an ice maker! I’ve never had one before. I’m excited about that.

We still have a ways to go but it is so close now. And I love it. I love the colors, the space, the storage. It doesn’t even look like the same place- thank goodness because the before was very worn out.

The kitchen and front room are looking great. Now to get the rest of the house to match.

It Is a Big Mess

Yesterday Alex and I went to the store to buy trim. We have three windows and twelve doors to trim- for now. That’s not including the inside of the doors in the bedrooms. We will get to that soon enough because we are replacing the old dinged and beat up doors as well. We had planned on buying those but had no room so we’re going to order them and have them delivered.

Today though I needed to clean the storage rooms for my sanity. Disorganization makes me feel like my entire life is out of control. I’d like to start the new year with some sense of order and control.

Before

Tell me that picture isn’t straight out of an episode of Hoarders. I show you this embarrassment of a storage room to be real and probably make you either feel like you aren’t alone or that you’re better than me because you’ve got your act together because heaven knows I don’t.

The frustration of not knowing where stuff is is maddening. We just shoved stuff into this room to deal with later. We are procrastinators. I was trying to figure it all out when the idea of categorizing it all helped me make some sense of the chaos. I have corralled the canning supplies, crafts, sewing, games, baking pans, occassionally used countertop appliances, cleaning supplies, office/school supplies, etc. There is still more stuff taking up space than I’d like but at least it is condensed now and I can find it. By the way, I found two hot glue guns I didn’t know I had. I’ll be getting rid of them and any other superfluous objects I’ve found that we don’t use. I’m getting better at getting rid of stuff I’ve been hanging on to. I still have a long ways to go though. I still haven’t found the one thing I thought I’d find while cleaning the room- the tape for my label maker that I wanted to use in this room. The irony.

Also, now that I’ve organized and gone through everything I can see how much food storage we don’t have. We have plenty of hot chocolate powder so the moral will stay up for a little while even if there is nothing else to eat. 😉

After

The mess had spilled out of the room and so I tidied up the bookshelf and sorted through the owners manual stash and trashed a bunch of those. I got garage stuff taken to the garage, Christmas stuff packed up and taken to the garage except for the tree. The kids wanted to keep the tree up without the ornaments. I can live with that.

Good news today! The cabinet guy came this morning and measured so they can start building the cabinets. Install date is set for February 8th. Yay! We are 42 days out and our appliances, minus the fridge because fridges are hard to come by, will be delivered on Thursday. We are so close I can almost see it. Then the countertops will be maybe three weeks after that so we are looking at the beginning of March, hopefully.

Funny story though. The cabinet guy came in and was measuring and asked how we liked the neighbors. I said fine, why? He said its his brother. Hahaha. I saw the resemblance once he said it. Now I’ll say hi when I see him visiting.

Alex spent the day mudding and taping the kitchen whilst I was trying to reign in the basement mess. I’m letting him do the taping and to my surprise when I went up to bring stuff upstairs he had textured half the kitchen! That saved me so much time and I think he did better than I would. He used less mud, too. We’ve gone through three boxes already and he still isn’t done. We’ve decided that since we’ve got the deadline for the cabinets that we would leave the laundry room/pantry for later. I’ve a whole post on the pantry coming. I have so many ideas and decisions and purposes for that room.

We worked all day on the house and cleaning and we took the night off to spend time with the kids and not just walk past each other all day.

Family Christmas Weekend

We went to visit my family this past weekend. We hadn’t all been together is months so we went. The weather cooperated and the roads were dry the whole way. I had planned on us leaving on Saturday but Alex said why wait around, there was no reason not to go Friday. Well, okay. We told the kids to start packing. It is never a good idea to last minute pack with eight kids and a dog. We ended up forgetting a bag that contained two of the kids’ clothes in it. Oops! It all worked out. When there are 23 cousins, there’s going to be someone who can share clothes. Luckily my sister-in-law was going to be passing by a couple days later and she brought our stuff.

We sang for the entire two and a half hour drive- at the top of our lungs. By the time we finally got there we had no voices left. It was worth it.

On Saturday about 1 o’clock the power went out. Not a big deal during the day because the sun was still out. Two power poles had been knocked down in a accident and it took six hours to replace the poles enough for the power to turn back on. Alex and I took our kids to the hotel that we’d gotten for us to let them swim. I couldn’t take all eight kids and a dog cooped up in one room after swimming so we went back to my parents house.

Luckily I had started dinner before the power went out so the gas stove was on and the soup was still simmering. My parents found that since the gas was on on one burner it allowed them to light the others so we could cook more stuff even with the power out. Small blessings. We ate an early dinner before the daylight was gone and the kids ran around and played until it was too dark to see anything.

My mom and dad had found all their candles and had them lit. They hadn’t endured as many power outages as Alex and I have and they realized how woefully unprepared they were. Buying a generator just jumped up on the list of emergency preparedness items. You never know what you have or need unless you are tested on it or are really good at preparing.

So we corralled all the kids into the big room. How do you entertain fourteen kids for hours in the dark? The oldest two had devices to play on but for the rest we had to figure something out. Luckily Alex and I had trained for this (hahaha). For years for Family Home Evening we would have an activity, a game. Usually just silly little games like steam roller (steamroller is where all the kids lay next to each other in a line and then take turns rolling over the group), concentration, mannequin, ABC story, tangle, etc. We had the kids playing together for hours. We even took an ice cream break because my mom was afraid of the ice cream melting.

Mint chocolate chip by candlelight.

It was a loud night playing games for hours but it was a good loud. Kids giggling and laughing and having fun with cousins. It will definitely be a Christmas to remember.

The power came back on at 7:50 PM and we all cheered and clapped for joy. Alex and I gathered our kids up and loaded them into the van. We had decided to take them to see the big drive thru light show that everyone said was amazing. We drove the twenty minutes, got off the freeway and saw the insanely long line of taillights snaking off into the distance. Apparently everyone else had the same idea. It was quite disappointing to not see it. We couldn’t see waiting in line for that long.

Sunday dawned and we all got ready for home church. My mom’s entire family was there- all eight children and spouses and their children. I think it was thirty-eight people in all. Thats a lot of people. And before you get all up in arms about limiting gatherings for holidays, we’ve all had the coronavirus already.

My sister decided last year to start a tradition, to have a mele kalikimaka party. It was fun. We had fun food, she decorated and we played games together. It was nice. We managed to get all but one or two of the grandkids to cooperate for a picture. 23 kids! It was organized chaos. We ended up playing limbo and who knew my kids were so limber. Gideon won. It was really fun to watch.

Organized chaos.

My sisters and I. I’m in the middle.

My Dad and I. He might not appreciate this picture but I love it. After I took it I looked across the room and Alex was asleep on the other couch holding one of our daughters. Its a thing.

The food and games ended and families started filtering out. The noise subsided and all was calm- well, as good as it gets with twelve kids still running around. We ended the night by watching a movie called Seasons of the Heart.

Its my favorite Christmas movie and I hadn’t seen it in years because the only copy I had of it was a VHS. A couple weeks ago I ordered a DVD copy on ebay. We all quieted down and settled in to watch the movie. It was better than I remembered and my mom and I were crying.

We attempted to get the kids to sleep after that and of course a couple were hungry and two were complaining of a tummy ache and one said he had a headache. Why can’t nights be easy? We eventually got them all settled. Whew!

The next morning we cleaned up the house and packed the van, hoping we’d gotten everything. We were just waiting on my mom who said she had presents she needed to find for my kids. Lauren came up and asked when we were going home. I said, “When Gramma gets her act together.” We laughed because that would never happen. I went up and helped her wrap so we could get going.

We got in the van and drove off only to get a phone call a few minutes later. “Can you come back? We forgot to give you something.” I ended up going back into the house two or three times. We finally made it home and it was a fun weekend but I’m glad to be home. As my four year old Noah said after the trip, “I really enjoy being home.”

Laundry Room

Everyone’s favorite room is the laundry room, right? Probably not.

I saw this and it made me laugh.

Today the flooring guys were supposed to come. Did they? Nope. I knew I had a ton of work to do to prepare for the worker to come. The plan was to get up early and make all the kids help. Well, we woke up on time-ish and I got straight to work while making sure the kids were all getting ready and off to school. I drove them in two trips at different times. The weather is cold. 8° F feels like -9°. If I can drive them, I do. They have to walk the rest of the week. When they were finally off to school I returned to my work.

I vacuumed the floor trying to find staples and any other object sticking up out of the floor. I found a few and hammered them down flat. I’m sure I missed a few but I’m not to worried because I’m having them lay a new subfloor so the surface is even. The previous floor was uneven and you could see the wear on the vinyl where the boards met.

Alex was working from home so between jobs he came up to help when I started on the drywall. The laundry room needed to be done, we hadn’t touched it and we thought we could get a good start before the flooring guy came. The guy never showed up but I wasn’t upset because it ended taking us all day, almost twelve hours. The floor needed to be pulled up, nails, staples and screws taken out and the ceiling was falling down from when we removed a closet.

On the ceiling you can see where the walls were. Also, take note of the ceiling texture. It is impossible to clean with all of those sharp spikes. I have an idea to fix that soon.

This room used to be two rooms, a bathroom and a laundryroom/mudroom. It wasn’t working so well that way. So we made it one room but there was still a toilet drain stuck in the floor. The plumber rendered it useless for us and Alex managed to disconnect it and with some more cutting into the floor we got it out!

The kids had so much fun with the hole in the floor. They passed stuff up and down and giggled the entire time.

See the copper pipes in the corner of the picture? Those are for the new sink. I decided that even though it would be a small sink, it would be nice to have somewhere to soak and scrub dirty laundry. It will be a very small sink I think. Better than nothing- I hope.

We got the laundry room all done and mostly cleaned up. I put the washer and dryer back on their wall and hooked them back up so I could do a few loads. Even for the fact that I did laundry for two days straight last week preparing for this week of not having the use of the laundry facilities, I still needed to wash more clothes! I got the washer leveled with a shim and at an angle to compensate for the slanted floor and got a couple loads done before bed. We learned the hard way in the first few months of marriage that if your washer isn’t level your washer will break. We are freaks about leveling appliances after that. Not cheap to replace them when a simple leveling will keep them working. We were just kids, what did we know.

Yes, the dog is always in the picture. The blue walls are the mold resistant drywall. Benjamin saw them and wasn’t a fan of the color. Yeah, I’m not either. For that room anyways.

This is the wall the washer and dryer used to be on. A whole post will be devoted to this. I have way too many ideas sometimes.

Man, the last few days of work wore us out. Due to Alex’s back hurting I did most of the heavy lifting. We had about 36 sheets of drywall we put up. We have one leftover. I cut and lifted and moved 36 sheets! Alex screwed them all in and built out a wall and built a closet. It was three whole long days of work. Now I get to mud the joints and texture the walls. I hope the flooring guy comes so I can have a few days break from construction to catch up on housework.

Kitchen Progress

Fair warning, you’ll probably get picture overload.

So, the electricians came and did their job. We have all new wiring throughout the laundry room, kitchen, and dining room. The wiring was the catalyst for this whole project.

That black scorch mark going up the wall? That was all over the kitchen. Safety hazard? I think we’re blessed to still have a house.

New wiring and more outlets going in. There were several outlets in the kitchen that didn’t even work. Again, fire hazard.

The kitchen now has new lighting and lots more of it. The dining room that was so dark before is now bright in the day with the new windows and bright at night with the new lights.

The day after the electricians gave us the okay we started to drywall. Alex’s back hurts so I tried to pick up the slack where he needed me to. The missionaries from our church came and helped us out as well. They were a huge help. Alex can’t lift or bend over and the Elders brought all the sheetrock into the house for us. They helped hang some of it and did the remaining demo in the laundry room. I am very grateful for their help.

Alex and I hung the drywall for 9.5 hours the first day and about 4 hours the next day. We were exhausted! But, we got the kitchen and dining room done. I only mismeasured one outlet but I learned to read a tape measure accurately and got pretty quick at measuring and cutting sheetrock. I wouldn’t like to do it for a job but I think I did okay on our kitchen. We managed to waste very little. I used every scrap I could.

The lights work!

The kitchen view

We can’t see through to the laundry room anymore!

Drywall done in this room. The dog was constantly with us except when the saws were in use. She’s in a lot of the pictures.

View of both rooms from the hallway.

An empty space we discovered years ago behind the fireplace. Alex framed it in yesterday.

The closet is now a reality instead of an empty waste. And who doesn’t need more closets?

The old gold ceiling fan. I took it apart to paint it.

After the paint job. A penny saved and all.

So, you see why I’ve been absent for awhile. We’ve been super busy getting evrything together and done. Add birthdays, holidays, illnesses and a baptism in the mix along with the regulat daily upkeep of life and there’s only so many hours in the day. Our plan is to just hit the project hard so we can finish it quickly.

Electricians took four days time, not the two that were planned and so Alex and I are two days behind schedule. The flooring guy is coming Monday and we haven’t started the drywall in the kitchen and the floors still need to be prepped. Luckily it is mostly done so the plan is to get up early with the kids and get as much done before seven as we can. I’ll keep going once the kids are in school and hopefully wer should get all the essentials done on time.

It is all starting to take shape and the kids are getting excited. They like having the big empty space to run around in. I’m excited to have the construction dust and insulation mess gone. Three fine layer of dust on every surface is driving me mad. That and not having my kitchen above ground where I can see outside while I work. We’re so close to the finish line.

Funny story though. Older houses have lots of quirks. The electrician came down and asked what the plug next to the sink was for. I told him it went to the dishwasher. He looked at me incredulously and said, “There isn’t supposed to be a switch for the dishwasher.” “And yet,” I answered with a smile, “there is.” He said he’d fix it to be how it is supposed to be. I actually didn’t mind the switch. It allowed me to turn off power to the dishwasher so little kids wouldn’t start or stop the dishwasher when I wasn’t looking.

There is only one big hiccup. When we were putting up the sheetrock Alex noticed that the electricians forgot to wire for the range hood. Oops. They’ll have to get it when they come back to put the plugs and pendants in.

My plan is to have the flooring done this week and then I want to have these mudding, taping, texturing, and trim work done before the end of the year. We’ll see if I’m too ambitious or not.