Recent stuff and things

I feel like I am just coming out of my hibernation. It has been a dark wintry couple of months and we have a fair amount of progress to show.

John took on the plumbing and wiring for the remodel. He had long planned to do the wiring and the plumbing was largely because we had trouble finding a plumber who wanted to work on our job. 

The laundry room has new machines and a new water heater.

Playing in the shop when the weather is wet/cold/dark outside.

Odin turned 12!

 Work on the treehouse is wrapping up! It now has windows and a door. Odin wanted a Dutch style door and thanks to my visiting uncle Darryl, he got it. The boys had a blast and cranked the door out in a day!

 Our kitchen has gotten a lighting upgrade. We used it as a test to see what spacing we wanted for lights in the rest of the remodel.

 

 This is the "before" kitchen lighting. It is also "before" the cabinet doors were put back on.

We installed drywall in the laundry room ceiling. Since the summer part of the ceiling has been plastic sheeting.

 Exterior lighting also got an upgrade. We purchased the lights over the summer and John mounted and wired them up. It is nice to have exterior lighting during the dark months.

And lastly, Odin joined the archery team at the school that he will attend in the fall! For his birthday we gave him the bow that the team uses and he started with the team in January!

The team practices in the gym weekly and every other week in the schools cafeteria.

Family time

We headed to the frozen North country for Christmas. It was COLD. I mean REALLY COLD.
I did not venture outside much. We visited Jenny and her family on the front end of our trip.

Someone celebrated another trip around the sun.

Hi Jenny!

Still too much exposed skin.

Cousins!

Odin and John went skiing while in MN. I played ski bunny in the lodge all day.

HI there

In October we went to Hawaii for a week. We were able to stay and play with Beth before she moved back to the mainland. We had a great week, it is a good thing that Beth moved just after out visit, otherwise we might have stayed!

Remodeling

Our remodel project has taken up so much of our time and resources in the past year and a half. We are very excited for the final layout as it is going to make our house so much better. In the mean time, we are finding ways to make do. 
Johno just hooked up our laundry machines, so we can do laundry IN OUR OWN HOUSE!! We have wonderful friends that near nearby that have been gracious enough to allow us to do laundry at their hour for the last four months.

We plan to replace both of the machines in the near future. For now, our trusty craiglist ones are getting the job done (Johno would say barely getting the job done).

The day we went down to a single bathroom in the house (Late May).

Our previous (temp) laundry hookups, also left in late May.

This was our kitchen until July when I started painting. It felt like I was living in the house from E.T. 

Fast forward to today, Johno is working on the plumbing rough in. After waiting months for plumbers to get back to us and actually submit bids, he is tackling it with the help and advice (some terrible) from friends.

Looking at the new bathroom.

From the remodel to the kitchen. The 2x4 keeps the roomba out of the construction mess. 

(the aforementioned construction mess)

Summer Wrap up

2017 was a busy summer that went by very, very quickly.

We had many adventures, and did many projects.

Most notably:

The kitchen is painted!

Our very 'lived in' kitchen.

The 'before' this is before we moved in. I started stripping the doors 

just 

a couple of months after moving in .

The exterior of the house is finished, and painted!

Another 'before' This was in April the morning we started exterior work. It was completely finished over Labor Day weekend. The house is the same colors still, with the exception that the red is a cleaner color now.

 The interior of the house is still a work in progress. That will be another post.


 The chickens have started laying. Except for these two guys.

 As if that were not enough, we have built the "house" part of the treehouse.