One from Cara

Cara's gooder of the day....discussion while walking back from berry fields.

Mama, how old is Auntie Shelly?

Hmm, I think about 22.

Can she make breakfast???


hahahahahahaha  LOVE you Shelly!!!

Deal of the Month

 Saw this dresser sitting on a neighbor's driveway after a Sunday garage sale.  I was delighted as I had been searching and searching for a dresser that would be better for Cam and Cody for quite a while.  I had even asked my Mom to keep an eye out while garage sale-ing, giving her a $20 limit.  The price tag on this one?  $20.  Went back Monday morning... feeling a bit wary seeing as it was still before 8 o'clock and I was about to knock on the door and try to strike a deal.  Thankfully my most wonderful neighbor (who was also a direct neighbor of the lady-with-the-dresser) offered to come to the door with me.  Seeing as Sue knew the lady's name and had a bit of a neighbor-like relationship with her, I scooped up her offer very quickly!

The rest happened pretty quickly... we knocked on the door, lady answered, was friendly, accepted my offer of $10 and watched as we carried the dresser across the road.

Now, I had actually asked permission to store the dresser at Pastor John and Sue's house till the end of the day seeing as I was already pushing my limits for getting to school for subbing on time.  No problem... Sue offered to deliver the van to our back yard and sure enough it was sitting there in all it's glory when we got home 7 hours later!

 A great deal of furniture stripper and sanding later....and then I went on to do the sides and the small front pieces as well.

Too bad I didn't get a picture of it outside so I could share the beautiful color of it seeing as a very crowded bedroom and basement lighting doesn't do my pride in my hard work justice ;) 

Crooked was the best I could do while hanging off the side of the loft bed to try and get the top :)

$10 for the dresser $2.50 for the new 12 handles at Rusty's at the four way on the way to Harrison and almost $4!!!! for some washers seeing as the old handles actually went into the drawers... a great deal for a big dresser.  Lot's of fun too.

Looking forward to...

 Fresh blueberries!!!  The frozen are delicious but sure alot messier :)

Cody and Cara found 2 blue/purple/green ones in the field yesterday.  Very exciting!

a couple of funnies

The other day we, gasp, skipped school and went, along with Nana, to watch a couple of cousins perform the play "Annie Jr."  It was a TON of fun and as you might imagine, our very own dramatic Cody liked it immensely!  Now, if you're not aware, Annie is the story of an orphan growing up in an orphanage in NYC in the 1930's...I think.  The orphans at that time were not very well loved, but in fact, considered non people for the most part.  A pain in the neck for the other part.  In Annie, the orphanage director is named Miss Hannigan and she represents the many directors who were down right mean to the children.

The funniest comment came from Cody who came home and banged his hands on the table, "If I had to write that play, I would call Miss Hannigan, Miss SHEnanigan!"



Also, last night, I came to bed after Steve was already asleep. He turned to me and growled, "don't kiss me, you nazi!"
And I can only guess that he fell asleep reading his book.  I fell asleep laughing.

A Before and In Between

Progress Report :)

It's long overdue for those who have been looking for these pictures as these are already more than a week old!  There are a lot of pictures in this post so for those of you who would love to have a glimpse of what it's like to do a reno/addition, without the mess, here you go!

This is what we ended with on Friday night.  You notice the old green back door on the bottom right (what you can't see is that there are floor joists butted right up against it.  The last thing Steve did on Friday was remove all the old exterior siding to expose the yellow insulation.  I may have reported on this already :)

 So, bright and early Saturday morning Steve had at the back hall with a crow bar.  The door way behind him is the green door from the above picture but from inside the house.  There was a small landing with stairs coming upstairs (the ones Steve's working on) and then stairs going downstairs on the other side of that little wall he's pulling dry wall off of.

 It didn't take me long to remember I wanted to do SOMETHING to help with the dust.  3 layers of old bed sheets was my line of defense.  So, they are covering the doorway to those stairs Steve is working on above and to the left is the kitchen.

 Didn't take too long.  the drywall was gone, the stairs were gone and he was working on the floor boards.

 The green door obviously had to go and so did that wall!!

There is a little cement wall in the middle/right of the picture...removing that was one dusty mess!!

By lunch time, this hard working husband of mine was well on the way to removing the down stairs as well.

He is not without observers and willing muscles for handing over things like sledge hammers. (This picture is a different perspective as I'm standing in the new part looking down stairs.... see my nice bed sheets?)

By 1:30ish there was nothing left but a gigantic hole and lots of mess to clean up :)  It exhausts me to think of how hard Steve works!!!

Ahh, things start taking shape and floor joists go in to connect the old and new parts.

The floor is sheeted which makes a nice landing for removing the rest of the wall.  Time's a ticking though and there are two bedrooms downstairs that would be great to have access to before bedtime!

 Thankfully some great brothers show up and get a set of stairs in in no time at all.

 Les had already cut the stringers while Steve was finishing his demo so he sent them down to Steve at the bottom of the hole to be set in place.

 By supper time it was all done.  Well in a matter of speaking.  The stairs were solid and functional and we had railings of sorts.

Next to go will be that wall making the new floor look like a hallway and the old exterior wall with the window in it.

 And because we're living in a construction zone and there's plenty of dust to go around, Steve drew a race track complete with race cars on the floor so they kids know what the boundaries are.  Anything outside the track has likely not been shop vac-ed and will make even more dusty footprints to look at :)

Burnaby Village

Got to go on a field trip with this sweet boy today.  Such a soft heart, thinking nothing of walking beside his mama and holding her hand.

 Yet willing to throw her under the bus when it came time for the teacher to inspect his finger nails.  "I had some of my Mom's blueberries and SHE forgot a fork" to explain why his fingers were all stained purple.  When the teacher explained that dirty nails could be cause for lines he took her seriously and after he finished eating his lunch he ran back to the school room to show her his slate.  It said, "I will not come back to school again with dirty fingernails."  :)  She was much less stern and invited him behind the rope for a picture.

 These two men were practising the rich farmer, poor driver routine BUT THE KICKER!!!??? they've got their era's all mixed in the same basket with the "rich farmer" on his cell phone! :)  It was such a great sight.

 My precious school boy a winkin' at me.

 He was delighted to donate these church pants for the cause and to watch me hack them off and stitch them up for knickers.

It always is a great field trip but I think today's visit was my best one for friendly, informative, loving their job interpreters.  If you're looking for a great place to spend a summer day, admission's free Tuesday - Sunday.  Burnaby Village.