Almost there...........

We are getting ever closer to the addition being complete. It is almost finished! The endless layers of dust upon dust will soon be cleaned up (not looking forward to that cleaning) and everything will be removed from our downstairs family room and put where it belongs! We have gotten our final electircal inspection completed already. There is still some work for the HVAC guy, and some finish work both the contractor and us need to do.

This past weekend Rob's parents were up and helped us get a good start on putting up the trim molding and casements. Probably one more day of work left there. Then some touch up painting and it should be done. With any luck everything will be clean and ready for Christmas. Ethan has been really wanting to put up the Christmas tree and lights, but they are all buried in the family room somewhere - or at least that is where I think they are.

Here are some photos to catch you up on our work:

All the priming and painting was basically done in two days and one evening. It was a mad rush since we were called away to my grandfather's funeral over Thanksgiving.

Ethan and Mom priming the walls. Christine doing more painting.

Preview of the downstairs color, the red was hard because the base for it is REALLY thick.

Gwen and Christine staining boards. Bill and Robert puttin up trim.

Ethan helping in his own way.

Adventures

When it comes to the flooring we have decided to lay the laminate wood in the upstairs dinning room ourselves. Since Lowe's was having a 15% off sale Rob was nice enough one day to go buy the flooring and bring it home. Here is how he tells it: he went in, grabbed a regular cart and headed to the flooring sections, after loading four cartons he realized that the cart just will not be big enough (underestimated the length and size completely - honestly we both never thought that much about it), he found one of the lumber carts that has the square rim on it and decided to stack them ontop of the rim (so he would not have to bend down to pick them up again), they piled higher then he thought and made it to check out. Then he realized he had to fit 15 cartons into the civic!! He managed but the civic really weighed down, and then he got home and had to unload all by himself. But they are in the house now - and we saved quite a bit. Here are some photos of Rob's poor civic working like a truck.

Another adventure we have been having is with Ethan. Apparently he does not like his room. We have discovered that this is purely because it is not Mom's room. And now with the new addition there is very little way to move him downstairs with us. So we thought if he got to reorganzie his room and move things around that might help. As of last night though it did not seem to work. But here is the photo of his new arrangement. Basically, everything is reverse of were it used to be.

Work on addition continues

The work on our addition continues, even this Saturday, the dry wall crew came through and got the walls up. The mudding will be done Monday and throughout the next week. Rob is picking up the laminate wood floors that we will be doing tomorrow and the real floor people will meaure Monday as well. Here are some more photos of the progress.

Here are some of the outside, siding done and future deck prep. Basically all but gutters. Still have to paint the doors. But, that is my job so guess I cannot complain----maybe yellow is fine?

The lower level is the one with the vault door -Robert's pride and joy. By the way he is open to renting space in it, no gaurentee on return though.

All dry walled, needs mud still. Actually looks like a real room - smells like crazy too --- some type of adhesive Robert says. Good thing is after a few minutes you can not tell it is there until you leave then Wooooo, SMEELLLLYYYYY.

More on Addition

The addition of formal dinning room and expanned hobby room continues. We have walls and windows and doors now! They should be starting dry wall soon, siding is up and we have steps to the doors, both upper and lower now. The vault door is also hung and functional. Here are some photos. I will post more with the siding and such in the next few days, I have to find time during the daylight to take photos. It looks pretty good and we are anxious to get flooring and painting.

Addition update

The addition to our house has had its ups and downs. The room sizes seem small one day and larger the next. When the concrete was poured it looked large, but now that some of the framing is up it looks smaller. I am consently reminding myself that it will be fine.

Here are the downs: while pouring the concrete walls the exterior wall (which does not have OSB) broke through into our laundry room. It was a MESS! Luckily the guys were right on it getting it clean and it seems like it should be okay. The second: after doing the framing up to having a floor on the upper level - that night it rained steady and water got behind the pad where the siding was removed and our downstairs window in the hobby room leaked all night! I suppose it is not terrible because that wall is coming down, but it still was not something we wanted to deal with at 10:00 at night.

Right now we have the roof boards going up, upper level internal framing, and Rob's vault door arriving today. Here are some photos of the progress. More images can also be seen in photobucket that Rob has been updating.

http://s219.photobucket.com/albums/cc41/harmanrk/Addition/

Homes

It has been awhile since I lasted updated this, and a lot has been going on. First, we took another trip to Wisconsin to help my parents get their home ready for sale. They are building a new house that will have a grandkids bedroom! This meant taking a lot of stuff to storage so that the garage could hold a car and the house was more open. This in addition to painting and finishing up those little projects. Dad had actually done an amazing amount of work! And the basement has not been that open since I was little. Ethan was a big help, as long as he had a job to do that is. And of course he got filthy! Once he found Grandpa's hard hat he was really into working. Taking load after load to the trailer. But, he loved it. Cousin Gregg also helped out with Ethan. Those two can really make a pair at times. And both very hard working.

At some point, either before or after, that trip Grandma and Grandpa Harman came for a visit and we went to a new park near us. This park has paved pathes and crushed gravel paths. Great for Ethan to ride his bike. Here are some photos Gwen took that are really good.

As some of you know, we are adding onto our house. This will give us a formal dinning room upstairs and a larger hobby room downstairs. And just more space which equals more storage we hope. Rob's parents were nice enough to help with the deck removal. They really made it possible since I was mostly unable to help since I had earlier that week been bucked off a horse and broke my nose (all is well though). In one day the deck was down, and now we are adjusting to using the front door and having to take Diego outside instead of just opening the door. Diego still has not totally figured it out. He still goes to the back door to go out. Silly pup. The weekend after I pulled all the patio blocks to save for later use, not sure exactly where yet and Rob finished the last of the chipping of the tree limbs. Then yesterday (10-9) the crew was out digging the hole, Ethan and Rob stayed home to watch. Ethan really loved it. The workers had an audience almost the entire time they were there. Additional photos and plans of the additions can be found in photobucket http://s219.photobucket.com/albums/cc41/harmanrk/Addition/

John and Andrea's Wedding

On September 8 my brother John got married to Andrea. He had purposed last Christmas. It was a good wedding, full of youngsters trying to get out of their jobs. Ethan's cousin Gregg carried a flower basket down, and Andrea's nephew Dylan and Ethan were ring bearers. The day of rehearsal the two older boys, wanted nothing to do with pillows and walking down the aisle. The day of Dylan did well and Ethan said it was too loud, so Mom had to walk down with him. After that all went well. So since it was a wedding, we all got dressed up. Ethan looked very handsome, and much older then he is. I even got Rob to get a long sleeve shirt and tie, which my Dad had to tie. And of course I wore a dress that I got from my Mom. She just may never get it back because I actually liked it a lot-which is a first. Rob was in charge of the camera most of the time so there are actually photos of me here. We wish John and Andrea the best of luck Congrats!!

Trip to Wisconsin

Ethan returned yesterday from his trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Wisconsin. He sure had a busy time there and is still calling me Grandma at times. They started the time with a Boy Scout family campout at Bong Recreational Area (yes, it is called that - named after someone not something). He had his very own sleeping bag, flashlight, glo-sticks, and Grandma even got him camping boots! So he was set. He was helpful, even helped putting up the tent. Not sure how long that took, but I was told they got it up. He slept good all the way at the bottom of his sleeping bag. He liked the food, but loved the meal where they had hot dogs. One of his very favorite foods. Although from what I've been told he was doing a lot of eating and sleeping..........which of course means a lot of growing is going to happen soon! Ethan also enjoyed bug hunting. Even though he was not sure at first. He was very proud of all the critters they found and telling everyone else about them. Perhaps this will change his strong desire to squash anything that crawls and is bug like outside. Not that we mind him crushing the ants that like to live on the patio and driveway. Another fun spot was the playground. Here is a photo of Ethan looking very energic and playing while Grandpa looks quite tired and sleepy. I think it is a rule that the youngest always sleep the best, just to give them an added advantage in such matters. Ethan also did good around the camp fire, or at least I did not hear otherwise. He seems like he really enjoyed camping and wanted to know when we could take him camping. So it looks like we may finally get to use that tent we were given as either a wedding present or a first Christmas present!

Ethan, Grandma, my Uncle Pat and Aunt Laura and their kids all went to the Wisconsin Dells. Where Ethan got to play at one of the water park hotels and ride the ducks. He sat on the side and kept looking where the wheels went when they went into the water. I think he had a great time and loved hanging out with more family. And even though Grandma tried to steer him towards a different one, he picked out a bright yellow sweat shirt as a souvenir. He absolutely loves it, and now just has to wait for the weather to be right to wear it.

It also seems like there was a fair amount of goofing off going on at the resturant called Moose Jaw. Or at least Ethan had a blast playing with his moose antlers. Here are some photos of that. He is really into "can you see me" playing. He also is just a camera clam.

The rest of his time was spent playing and having fun. He played very well with his cousins Gregg (who just turned 2) and the baby Mike. Mike of course wanted to play with the big boys so he got right down there with them. A baby is a fairly new thing to Ethan, but he had his big

boy toys, like a remote control battle ship and tank and then there were little boys toys. And of course everyone likes book time.

When Mom and Dad were there to get him, Dad went to a bachelor party for John and Grandma and I took all three boys to the Milwaukee zoo. That was an adventure to say the least. Luckily Ethan was on his very best behavoir and was a huge helper. I really do not know how my Mom ever did anything with all three of us in tow. I am not sure I saw more then a couple animals outside of the boys. But, they did have a great time. Gregg's favorite was probably the blue rasberry slushy, and Ethan loved the toy he picked out but also liked the sea lion show and the tram ride. Ethan was kind of bummed out about the train ride having too long of a line for us to wait for. But, luckily did not throw a fit. He really is growing up nicely. Now, if we could just get him to pretend like he missed us whenever he has spent time with either set of Grandparents. He so loves being spoiled. Next post should have Ethan in cute suit vest and dress pants from John's wedding in September. The boys (Ethan, Gregg, Mike, and Dylan(Andrea's nephew)) should all look super cute all dressed up together. Hopefully we can keep them clean for a few photos.