Attic Reno 3

Justin continued work on the attic over the weekend.  He continued installing the subfloor and the first knee walls went up in the bathroom area.  He was pleased with his progress!

 And I made my first contribution to the project!  I located an old work table at the Little Prairie Girl shop in a neighboring town.  I plan to investigate options for refinishing it and turning it into our vanity complete with two sinks.  I wanted to have a touch of old with the new to keep with the origins of our old farmhouse.  Excited to see how this turns out!  Am sure it will be a labor of love!

 

Diggin' in the Dirt

Our family got the garden in tonight.

 Everyone had a hand, or a paw in the process.

 Kale was back to his flag snatching ways though he did better with leaving them alone when we asked him to, compared to last year.

 Cedar made himself at home in the soft soil and became especially interested in the potato planting.  That's when he attempted his own snatching escapades.

 Kale "helped" with the potato planting by throwing the potatoes for Papa to place in the ground.

Always an adventure as we groom the next generation of gardeners!



Mother's Day Weekend

Justin was on vacation last week to work on the attic project.  At the end of the week, we took off for a weekend getaway to enjoy as a family.  Kale talked about swimming at the hotel for days before we left.  This was by far, his highlight.

 On the way to the pool each time, he was way ahead of us in the hallway..

 He had fun splashing Papa and jumping into the arms of Papa while Mama also jumped in, splashing them both, time and time and time again.

 I think he's excited for swim lessons to begin next month!

 Another of his highlights in our hotel room was "making coffee" with the little coffee pot.  He had several cups a day :)

 Upon reaching home, Kale was pretty pooped.  He loved getting to sleep in the same room as Mama and Papa and the 2nd night was talking for about an hour, in the dark, before he finally settled down.  I'd say our boy likes hotels.

 He quickly snapped out of his tiredness when Papa turned on the TV and "The Voice" was on with all of its guitars and microphones.

It was a nice Mother's Day weekend, all in all.  I was able to sneak away to a few stores while Kale napped with Justin.  We got to have some really good food, and of course the pool was a blast with our little boy.  Though I certainly don't feel I earn all the pomp and circumstance of "Mother's Day" as so many days I fall short of being anything but a great mom, it was a good reminder to be the best mom I can be every day of the year.

Attic Reno 2

On Thursday night we were blessed with some amazing muscular man friends :) who helped move plywood up to the attic so Justin could begin floor installation. 

 

Don't they make it look easy???  Many, many thanks for these willing and able arms!

The Tablecloth

My mom and dad are coming for lunch tomorrow.  We'll be celebrating Mother's Day a little early and I wanted to make lunch special.  I remembered that I had one of my late grandma's tablecloths so I got it out and found it was in need of a good ironing.  

 As I applied the iron to the tablecloth, the smell of it came to life and I was taken back to my grandparent's home.  My grandma always had a tablecloth on her table.  Something so simple yet not often seen on the tables of today's generation.

 So I ironed it up and laid it neatly across my own table as grandma had probably done many times before.  I thought of the many meals she'd probably served her family on this very cloth.  The many discussions that probably took place over meatloaf, sweet corn, and potatoes.  The hands that rested there.  The hands that prayed there.

Something as simple as a tablecloth evoking memories and daydreams and thankfulness for my heritage.  Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas in my life!  Enjoy your weekend as you spread your own tablecloths and make your own memories.

Attic Reno

When Justin and I looked at our acreage home nearly five years ago during an open house, we remember entering the walk-up attic and dreaming about it becoming a master bedroom before we were even the home owners!  While walking through with a house inspector, he assured us it would be a project that could be completed.

 The attic has sat empty for five years holding only insulation to help with heating and cooling of the house.  Other projects took our attention first including adding an attached garage, new shingles, insulating the porch, etc.

 Justin, always looking for the next project, believed it was time to begin the process of putting our dream into reality.  He started by removing all of the insulation.  Folks, there was a lot of insulation up there.  He started by bringing it down the two separate flights of stairs, bundle by bundle.  Then things got interesting as he removed insulation from the ceiling that may well have been there for 50 plus years.  He chucked that out the attic window and we gathered it up.  The majority of the insulation we put into the attached garage ceiling.  The rest went to a friend who's dad wanted to use it in his shop.

 The next step was purchasing lumber and getting it up to the attic.  Justin made a lot of trips carrying lumber through the kitchen and again up two flights of stairs.  One night after small group bible study, the guys formed an assembly line ushering 2X6X10s and 2X4X10s up the outside of the house and through the attic window.

 Justin then worked on extending the rafters to allow enough spray foam insulation to meet code.  This was a tedious process involving many compound angle cuts.  Unfortunately, we'll lose some head room in those already low slanting corners, but we plan to use the space as best we can with built in drawers.

 The most glorious part of this whole endeavor will be an added bathroom to the house.  We currently have one shower/tub which works most of the time, but gets tight on Sunday mornings and when we have guests in the house.  Justin has been working on cutting out the floor where the bathtub will sit to "sister the joists" as well as allow the plumbers to do their work as needed in the floor.

 The plumbers have been able to run the piping down through the laundry shoot to the basement.

 Justin has also worked on raising the floor where the shower and toilet will sit to allow clearance for the drain pipes to not interfere with floor joist strength. 

We're definitely in the early stages of this.  My role has been to keep Kale content while his Papa spends a lot of time "up in the attic" as Kale says.  I'm looking forward to the decorating portion, of course...!  Check back for our progress!