Sunroom, Porch, and Basement Progress

We've been working really hard each night after the kids go to sleep.  One wonderful and fully finished project is the sunroom.  The ugly wall is covered and painted, there is a new light fixture, and the floor has been painted.  I'll post pictures next week of the finished room but here's a little trip down memory lane for the room when we bought the house (you must also imagine a VERY STRONG odor of dog urine to get the full effect). 

Another project that is very close to finished is the front porch.  There is one railing section to finish so I'll post pictures when it's complete.

We did a lot of drywall work this week in the basement.  The drywall is installed in about half of the space and the first coat of compound is on.  It's looking a lot better and hopefully soon we'll have it in much better shape. 

The giant dirt pile next to the patio is no more.  We hired a guy to come and move/remove it for us (in addition to some other work).  What a difference!  We keep saying that we should have done it a long time ago.  A little bit of seed and straw and this space will look great!

We're exhausted!  Hopefully we'll get to take a little break this week!

Fence, Sunroom, and Basement Progress

We got a LOT accomplished this weekend.  My parents came to town and my mom babysat while we worked hard on some big projects.  It was insanely hot and I think we all lost multiple pounds in sweat alone. 

One big eyesore in the backyard was this space behind the garage that used to be a poorly built shed area.  Since we tore the shed down, we've taken to stashing (in a very unorganized manner) random junk from other projects.  In order to hide this ugly area, we installed a couple fence panels.

I still have to finish painting it to match the other fence but it's already a huge improvement!

The entrances to the weird shed were a couple dwarf doors - one from the yard and the other from the sunroom.  Since we want the sunroom to look nice and be functional, we needed to remove the door and fix the wall.  

The wall was very poorly built - it curves like an "S."  The correct way to fix it would have been to remove the whole wall and rebuild it.  Of course we didn't want to do another huge project so we did the next best thing.  My dad removed the old door and frame and installed cinder blocks in the opening. 

 

It was then fully sealed but was still curvy and ugly.  We added a frame, some paneling, and trim to make it a lot nicer.  I still need to paint this wall but it is an enormous improvement over the dwarf door.  

We also had an electrician friend come over to start installing the wiring for the unfinished space of the basement.  He was able to finish over half of the outlets and even got a few of the lights installed.  We put in a little bit of drywall on Sunday evening but have a lot more to do.  It will be a great space when it's finished.

This week, the kids had swim lessons.  Josh did alright in water babies with me (just having fun in the water).  Samantha was in an independent class and did her usual non-participating for the first two days of class.  After a couple nice talks with her, she finally decided to at least try for the last couple days.  Here's a video of her kicking - we just need to keep working on it!

 

 I'll just end on a cute picture of Samantha.

Hopefully we'll get a lot accomplished this week too!

Tedious Work

We've been doing plenty of projects around here - tedious ones but it's forward progress.  Chris did a lot of work on the porch railing.  There is still one section left to complete but it looks great!

I've been spending a lot of time with some brick colored paint and a tiny brush.  The previous owners were quite sloppy with their trim painting so there is a lot of random white paint on the brick - particularly where we removed walls and along the top of the walls.  Here are a couple of the spots I've finished - it's not as noticeable as it was before at least!

We also had some fun.  I took the kids to the science center on Friday - they had a blast!

 

 

Our neighbors got some new chicks so we got to pay a little visit.  They have a dozen and they are adorable.  We'll be visiting often as they grow!

I made some colored beans for the kids to play with and I got about 45 minutes of quite time out of them (although I need to sit close so they don't throw them around the house).

Josh had a little tumble on the sidewalk and got a big scrape above his eye.  Fortunately it was just a little bump and he only cried for about 30 seconds.  He's happy and it makes him look tough!

We also went to a small street festival and happened to run into Elsa.  

We hope to get a LOT done this week (with hopefully plenty of pictures!). 

Fourth of July Fun!

Another week of summer, another week of fun. 

I took the kids to a local farm to pick blueberries and raspberries.  Josh probably ate a couple pounds of berries while we were there.  We also had a nice picnic and a visit to the goats and alpacas. 

Our July 4th festivities included two parades (the first was very rainy!).  The first parade was long and the kids got a LOT of candy. 

After church on Sunday we went to the Maryland Zoo.  The kids had a great time...and were exhausted (they fell asleep before we left Baltimore!).

I'll finish with a few more pictures from the week. 

Happy Josh (post berry feast)!

Chalkboard art.

Story time with Daddy.

Finally, our first ripe tomato of the season!

We have more fun planned this week!

More Summer Fun!

We've been so busy around here...but almost all of it is of the fun variety. 

I took the kids to a local farm this week.  They have a storybook forest, hayrides, and of course some animals.  We had a great morning there - here are some pictures of the fun we had. 

We have also been taking advantage of the free summer concerts.  On Wednesdays during summer there is a lunchtime concert at the lakefront.  We've gone that past couple weeks and the kids really enjoy both the music and getting to eat a picnic lunch.

After a Daddy/Daughter date night, Samantha and Daddy went out back to catch some lightning bugs.  We were nice and released them after a few minutes!

Unfortunately, our church picnic was on Saturday but they had to cancel most of the activities because of the rain.  We went for the book sale and take out dinners though. 

Chris worked hard to finish another section of the front porch railing on Sunday afternoon.  It has been unfinished for a long time and we still have three more sections to go...someday it will be done!

I'll end with a picture of Samantha playing princess dress up.  She definitely had a great time with this!