New Sunroom Floors

This adorable guy turned 8.  We had a nice party for him with his friends, and then immediately afterwards, the construction zone went into effect.  We needed to put new flooring down in the sunroom.

You can see the bad section to the left. The rest of the subfloor was good, though.  We had plenty of hardwood leftover from when we did the rest of the floors, so we decided to use it in the sunroom.  Unlike last time we did floors, I didn't help.  Elijah took over my job at the chop saw: 

And Malachi took over my job of laying out the boards for Nathaniel:

Both boys also acted as general gophers.  Nathaniel does all of the nailing.  The end result is gorgeous!

Gyunay is a camera hog.  When he sees me taking pictures, he jumps right in.  He loves the new floor, and has been busy playing with his "guys" (superheroes) there:

I don't have any plants on the shelves now, but in winter, they will be well-used.

Fireplace Tile

When we put in our hardwood floors, we also knew that we needed to redo the fireplace tile.  The old tile was not only ugly but also broken and coming off.  So we picked out this tile a while back.  Nathaniel finished up the tile a couple of weeks ago, but he just put on the trim today.  I love it!

Master Bedroom Floors

I bet by now you're thinking that I forgot all about posting pictures of the master bedroom floors, but I did finally get around to taking the pictures today.  You all should know by now that I have a tendency to procrastinate, but since I need pictures of all of our rooms for the dossier anyway, I knew I'd get the pictures taken soon.  So I've been photographing rooms, and today, the master finally got its turn:

Aren't the floors gorgeous?  Now, I realize that the room looks really plain and empty, until you look at my sewing corner:

Yeah, I need a fabric storing system beyond the totes on the floor.  I'm thinking of some shelving.  And that black dresser, from when I was a teenager and had a red and black bedroom, is going to eventually be painted white to match the sewing table and the room's trim.  Eventually.  But for now, I'm beyond thrilled with the floors and the yellow walls.  I never would have guessed that I'd be such a fan of yellow bedroom walls, but I really love how they brighten it up.  In the morning, it's like soft sunshine, and I love that.

The closet

Here is our bedroom closet before:

This is after I emptied it but before I removed the shelves.  I then painted it, and Nathaniel removed the carpet.  We put in wood floors, and now:

Ok, I started putting stuff back before I took the picture, but you get the idea.  I've not seen a prettier closet.    I still have to finish painting (I ran out of paint and still have to paint the wall you can't see in the picture), but otherwise, it's done.  And we finished the floors in our room, too, but no pictures yet.  We haven't got the tools put up or the furniture moved into place.  Maybe tomorrow, but more likely in a couple of days, since there's a school thing tomorrow night.  

Here is one of the pictures I snapped of the kids to put with our adoption dossier:

Yes, there are some cheesy grins, but that's about as good as it gets most days.  And more good news: yesterday we got our fingerprinting papers!  We go get the biometrics done for the US government on June 3.  That puts us one step closer to U.S. approval.  And I did get my correct birth certificates, so that's good news.  We are still waiting on a few things, and we have to get some papers notarized, but mostly we're just in waiting mode right now.

Blessings

My list of blessings for today:

1. The friendly and efficient people at the county clerk's office.  I just realized that I ran out of certified copies of our marriage license.  I thought it would be a long wait and a fee to get more, but they are mailing 2 copies out for free for me today!

2. My Mama, who's picking up some more paperwork that we need for USCIS.  (government approval to adopt)

3. My husband, who has been working his butt off to rip up the carpet and get it ready so we can lay more flooring  tonight:

You can see the black area where we're laying floor next.  There is still carpet to the far left.  We're doing our room in thirds, as we are moving furniture around rather than hauling it out of the room. (And when I say we, it's mostly Nathaniel moving all that heavy furniture.  I can't budge the dressers or the bed.)  It will look great when we're done, but right now, our room is a disaster!

4. My kids, who make me smile every day, even days they drive me crazy.

5. Spring!  Sure, it's rainy today, but when I look out my window, I see bright green, and check out this tree in my front yard:

I took this picture right here at my computer desk.  This tree is what I see when I look out the window here. I thought this picture turned out especially good when you consider that it was taken through a window with a screen on it!

6. Maddie, who is coming to babysit Friday night so Nathaniel and I can go out for our anniversary!! I am so glad that I've found someone I can trust to watch the kids, plus there's that benefit of the fact that her mom is my friend and lives nearby, so if anything came up, Maddie has quick backup.

I'm feeling very blessed today.  I hope you all see God's blessings today, too!

My room

Well, we've finished hardwood flooring throughout the upstairs except for our bedroom.  We plan on working on that soon, but first we wanted to paint the walls, which meant that the wallpaper border had to be taken off.  So this is what I did yesterday.

These pictures are in-process.  I did get it all scraped off, it just took basically all day.  My hand was really sore last night, so I thought today I might not be able to use it much, but it has surprised me.  It's actually almost normal today.  (I have a lot of issues with my right hand, due to a little mishap with luggage in the baggage claim area about 12 years ago - causing nerve damage - plus about 15 years worth of carpal tunnel in both wrists.  So sometimes it just doesn't work right, or hurts.)    I'm thrilled that it's in pretty good shape today, because I'm helping coach 11-14-year-old girls in volleyball tonight!  I was asked to help out with a Y clinic that will be once a week for 8 weeks.  It falls on Thursday nights, which is perfect because we don't have church, boyscouts, etc, so Nathaniel can just keep the kids home and put them to bed on time.  Fun stuff.

Kitchen Floors

I forgot to tell you about the kitchen floors.  Nathaniel and I finished them over the end of the break, and they look fabulous.  They really brighten up my kitchen, and I love them.

 I love, love, love my hardwood floors!  And here is a shot of Katie.  Her eye looks so much better than it did.  She can't see out of it, of course, and it probably will never look "normal," but it does look much better.

Now, the only room we need to lay hardwood in is our bedroom and closet.  First, though, we're going to patch and paint the walls.  And we're not all done with the kitchen; after our bedroom is done, we're going to install our butcher block counter tops.  They have been in the garage for months (along with the flooring), but we still have to cut and seal them and let them sit for a while before installing.  And eventually, we will have to re-tile the fireplace in the living room, but that's going to be even further down the line.  

Great Weekend

We had such a great weekend with our friends!  The weather has been perfect, and so Saturday we kept all the kids outside until dinner time.  This led to costumed play outside like this:

Lydia had so much fun following around a "big girl" friend.

Lightsaber battles are generally fun for everyone.

And, as promised, I took some pictures of the wood floors:

It is amazing how much bigger it makes the living room look.  I couldn't be happier with our floors.  We still have the rest of the kitchen and our bedroom, but the amount of work we've gotten done is very satisfactory.

Lastly, we headed to the zoo today for lots of family fun:

We had already told the kids that we'd take them to the zoo, and they were looking forward to it.  Honestly, we could have skipped the zoo trip.  The kids were doing so well playing together that leaving the house really wouldn't have been necessary.  But the weather was great, and we all enjoyed the zoo.  We moms kept a running head count, because there happened to be a big company picnic at the zoo, so it was more crowded than expected, but it did go very smoothly.  I think everyone in both families had a great weekend. All of the kids are looking forward to seeing each other again on the family camping trip in October!  

Stairs

Well, the stairs are mostly done. Nathaniel has installed them all.  I just need to touch up the white on a few steps and stain the top step.  He's also going to caulk the edges, but right now, I think they look fantastic.  I couldn't be happier with how they turned out!

Also, I never did post this picture of all 5 of us dressed up for the wedding in July:

It's not the best picture, but it turned out pretty good.  Malachi is actually looking at the camera, which is rare.  Of course, Lydia is not, and Elijah's got that weird grin, but hey, it's still decent.

Back Online

I'm b-a-a-a-a-c-k!  We finished the floors in the library yesterday morning, so now my computer is back up and running.  Check these out:

I had never noticed before how close the red paint inside the bookshelf matches the  paint on the walls.  Usually books block that view!

I need to fix the broken hutch door.

Obviously, I haven't put all the books back yet, but that was about all I had the time and energy for yesterday.  Besides flooring, we also spent a couple of hours in the neighbors' pool visiting and swimming.  I did take the kids to the fireworks last night, which was an awesome show.  It's the first time we've been to the fireworks here, since we're often out of town over the fourth of July.  It was also the first time Lydia has been to see a fireworks show other than just driveway fountains, and it was so cute to listen to her exclaim "That's my favorite!" after almost every one.  One of Elijah's friends was there, and he played with him the whole time, so that was great.  Malachi and Lydia had fun playing in the grass until it was show time.

Stairs

Nathaniel is tearing the carpet off the stairs today.  It is tedious, since it is full of nails and staples.  Elijah and I are busy emptying the library, which takes some time cause ya'll know I love books and have tons.  More flooring will be installed, but not today.  Hopefully, we'll get to some tomorrow.   Part of this work will mean that I will be offline for a couple of days, since I have to move the computer out of the library for the floors.  (Yes, I have an old-school desk top computer, and I like it that way.)