This was our last furloughed week and we had a sick girl for most of it. Samantha was used to having Chris at home so she was very angry once he went back to work. She was still giving him the cold shoulder yesterday (this girl can hold a grudge!).
Our patio and retaining wall materials were delivered this week so now they're littering the yard. Chris worked a little bit to get the start of the retaining wall base. Hopefully we'll be able to post some pictures of progress soon.
Chris spent one evening fixing some of the lines for the heating system so we're not freezing in the house. It took a long time but it was well worth it!
Over the weekend we had a wonderful time visiting a couple farms. This post is very picture heavy because of all the fun we had!
And last but not least, Samantha has become Tucker's best buddy - when she wakes up in the morning she asks for "Tucker?" Unfortunately, he doesn't always show the same amount of affection towards her!
We're getting a lot accomplished with us both being home due to the shutdown. This week the big news was finishing the master bathroom. Chris put in the remaining tile, installed the access panel, and installed a lot of shelves.
We think it is a major improvement over the old bathroom that was here so I'm going to show some pictures from the old bathroom, during construction, and the final product.
One other big thing we've been working on (when it hasn't been raining) was starting to prepare the area for installing the patio out back.
If you remember the gigantic tree that was very close to the house before, you may realize why this is going to take awhile.
Notice all the surface roots - this tree has roots spread all over this area like a huge pile of spaghetti. We started digging in the outline and then Chris just took out the spud bar and saws and removed some. After his many hours of labor, he was only able to clear a very small section so this may end up requiring extra hands or some heavy equipment.
We did have some fun this week too - we went to a place called "Pump It Up" that has a lot of inflatable houses, slides, and obstacle courses. Chris and another furloughed dad went and they had a lot of fun (even suggesting that the women go back to work so they can go more often). We also made some Halloween/Fall crafts. Samantha made a spider and painted a pumpkin.
She ended up getting sick on Saturday afternoon and she's still fighting it. She still smiled for the camera though!
Hopefully she'll get well soon so that we can have more fun before Daddy has to go back to work!
Well, Chris and I are both furloughed due to the government shutdown. But to make lemonade from the lemons we've been handed, we got a lot done this week. Samantha is also really enjoying having Daddy home every day!
The first big house project we worked on was putting the mulch around all the landscaping we just planted. It really makes a big difference. Here is a picture of this area when we purchased the house...
...and a picture of (most of) the landscaping installed and mulched.
Of course Samantha's favorite word during this time became "Mulch!!"
Even though we're furloughed, we purchased some bulbs to have some nice flowers this spring. We bought about 200 bulbs - daffodils, hyacinth, tulips, crocuses, puschkinia (Samantha's choice), and allium (Chris' choice). I spent quite a lot of time planting all of these!
Chris also worked to move/reinforce the downspout for the retaining wall installation. He took care of the big hole in the front of the house (that we uncovered doing landscaping work) among other things.
Of course we also had a lot of fun this week. Samantha had some of her normal activities - nature center, library story time, art projects, etc. We also went to two festivals where we had fun and good food! At the one festival, Samantha went into the bouncy house by herself with a bunch of big kids. She did great until someone stepped on her (but she went right back in afterwards).
I also had some fun this week with book club and going to see a local production of Les Miserables (it was fantastic!).
Samantha is really enjoying bubble baths - every time we go in for bath time she says "Bubbles, bubbles!"
She enjoys wearing hats (any she can get her hands on) - even when she looks like a little thug...
I'll end with a video. Samantha's been getting very good at puzzles so I made a matching game for her with cookie cutters (thinking it would be a challenge - I was very wrong!). At one point in the video she says "Turkey."
I guess we'll see when we go back to work, but in the meantime, we're going to do as much on the house as we can!
