Abandoned Blog

In lieu of doing a family blog, I've been trying to update a blog for each of the girls. I've taken the information I had on babyzone for each of the girls and added it to here, as I will not be updating babyzone any longer either. If you want to see how the girls are growing and what they're doing, check out these blogs:

http://www.my-isabella-grace.blogspot.com

and

http://www.my-lilian-josephine.blogspot.com

Picture this!

Kimberly Smoot came up from Springfield the other day to visit and take our family pictures. Her pictures rock - this was just a sneek peak - cannot wait to see the rest! Watch for more pictures to be posted soon!

Cabinets are a headache!

Ok, so first we find out on Saturday that they're not all wood, so we have to wait to see what happened, now, tonight we find out that they are spaced wrong - we don't need a three inch spacer, we only need like a 1/2 inch spacer...eeek! So, now we have to move the uppers down some, move the window again, and move the lowers over just a bit. What a pain! Just when it was starting to look like a kitchen!

More painting...

Tonight Sheila came over to finish up trimming out the "red wall". She trimmed and put another coat of paint on and then before bed, I put the third coat. It's really starting to look good - I'm not worried about it being candy apple red any longer!

Do you see the light at the end of the tunnel?

This morning Tom and Mike hung all the upper cabinets and started to place the lower cabinets until they realized that the lowers weren't all wood (which we paid extra for to hold the concrete counters)


...so they had to stop until we find out what we can do about it. Here's what it looks like so far.


Either way, we took the plastic down and everything seems much less cramped and much more homey and comfortable! YAY!

Painting...

Tonight, Mom and I painted the walls while Sheila trimmed out the corners and edges along the ceiling. We used a caramel color on all the walls except the wall outside the bathroom - it's a barn red - although it looks like a candy-apple red right now....yikes!

The cabinets are here!!!

They're in the kitchen....tomorrow night we paint!

Texture!

Tonight Mike and Brent sprayed texture on the kitchen and laundry room ceilings. Mike will be picking the cabinets up on his way home from work tomorrow night!

Finishing things up...

Tonight Brent worked on putting Primer on the walls while Mike and Tom finished up some of the mud work. We're getting closer - Wednesday night we'll be spraying texture on the ceilings, Friday night we'll be putting the cement board down on the floors and painting and Saturday we'll be hanging cabinets! Yippee!

Drywall is almost complete!

Tonight Mike finished hanging all the drywall on the wall between the kitchen and the living room. Now it's all done except what will be in the bathroom around the tub. One step closer to getting those cabinets delivered!

Just got the call...

THE CABINETS ARE IN!!! Yippeeeee!

Here's where they will go (all along the west wall and part way down the north wall.)

Here's the print of the cabinet layout!!!
(The top of the layout is the north wall)

More drywall up!

Mike and Brent worked on getting more stuff done tonight.

We no longer have a door to go in and out of the old part of the house to the new part of the house - it's now just a hole in the plastic that's up between the two...that means we're getting closer.

Our spare bedroom now has a drywalled closet and the studs have been put in where the door was. We just have to turn the power off to the living room for a bit to move the switch into the kitchen and we're ready to hang the last of it in the kitchen area. YAY!

Mudslinging action...and more!

Yesterday Tom came over and finished up with the first coat of mud. Almost all the walls that are up now have mud on them as well. (Thanks Tom!)

Mike watched the girls while I mowed...first time the lawn had been mowed in over 6 weeks...yikes!

Today Tom put a second coat of mud on almost everything. Mike got the rest of the drywall hung in the bathroom and laundry room/back entry area and finished up a lot of the little stuff.

Happy Independence Day!

Lots of fun down at the Peoria Riverfront!

...and relaxation to!

Mawma and Bella

Lili's belly.

Blowing kisses...

Lili attacking Daddy!

Look at those piggy tails!

We have some walls now!

Today Mike, Brent and Tom finished getting the lights/fan up in the bathroom, got the kitchen ceiling mudded, the bathroom ceiling insulated and drywalled, the laundry room ceiling insulated and drywalled (as well as the washer and dryer running) and the west and north walls in the kitchen completely drywalled. Way to go guys!

Now we're off to see some fireworks! Happy Independence Day everyone!

Does that look like a ceiling???

Jason and Mike finished up some of the odds and ends that needed to get done while Tom played around on his stilts and worked on getting mud on the ceiling.

Tomorrow's the big day!

They got a large portion of the insulation in the walls done tonight.

They also took out the wall between the kitchen and the living room. It's starting to come together now! Next is the insulation on the ceiling and to finish up the bathroom a bit more to make it somewhat private for use while we're living back at the house...we move back in tomorrow! YIKES!

Work, work, and more work!

Kyle helped out with getting the faucet on the tub running...

Tom and Mike got the header in place so the wall could come out...

And the Tyvek was put on the outside of the house yesterday!

We seem to have an endless amount of work! We're so thankful for the help we've had!

Let there be light!

TaaaDaaaa! Mike got all the lights up and running tonight and Tom got the a big chunk of the wall taken off. We're getting closer! We're almost ready to take out the wall between the kitchen and living room! (And did you catch a glimpse of that huge tub in the bathroom?)

Lookin Like A Kitchen!

They guys got lots done this week!

This is the view from the back entry / laundry room. If you look close, you can see the boxes for the outlets on the wall and even the cans on the ceiling! YAY!

And this is the view from the west wall. To the right is the bathroom (with the back entry door leaning on it) and to the right is the laundry room/back entry area.

Almost done with the sheeting!

Today Mike, Tom and Bill finished up the rafters and started sheeting for the roof. They're such hard workers, I appreciate them all so much!

Put a lid on it!

This week Mike, Tom and Bill worked on the rafters. The main part went fairly quick, but the ends were a bit trickier.

Ready for the roof!

The west wall of the kitchen with the trusses leaning against the wall.

The east wall for the bathroom and back entry area.

The north wall of the kitchen.

Today Mike, Kris, Bill and Kyle got the windows cut out of the walls and all of the trusses for the roof built and ready to go up.

They were busy bees today!...not as busy as this colony of honey bees living in the tree right outside of the kitchen window, but still, quite busy!

Up go the walls...

The back corner of the kitchen area.

The back door.

Wednesday night and tonight the Mike and Bill got all the exterior walls standing. The kitchen is definitely taking shape now!

Getting ready for the floor...

Checking to make sure each joist is level so everything that lands on the floor doesn't roll to one end of the room.

Just about done with the joists! YAY!

Today the guys, Mike, Brent, Tom and Bill, put down the floor joists and the floor. Tom even decide to make use of all the left over paint we had at the house and painted the floor to protect it from the weather. They were moving right along!