Renovation Realities Part 1 - Demolition

Well, demolition happened a few weeks ago, but I am still recovering from the shock of having my functioning bathroom to a room with studs and sub floor exposed!

Since the demo has happened, Byron has rerouted the drains for the sink and the tub, moved the copper pipes for the sinks and tubs, and built a new bench for the shower.

We are making progress....the tile is supposed to be installed on Monday, and we should have our bath tub here on the 31st!  We painted yesterday, and are going to try to install the crown molding this weekend!

Vanity used to be here!

Used to be the shower!

Better view of the destruction happening!

I used to have a tub there!  Now I have a hole in the floor!

Christmas Program

Haylee had her Christmas Program at school last week.  The kids work so hard in learning all of their Bible versus and songs for the parents and it is so adorable to go in and see them perform what they have learned.  This year, Haylee is one of 4 girls in her class of 14.  She looked so cute standing next to all of the boys in her class.

Enjoy some video of the program!

After the singing is over, we all get to go back to the classroom so Haylee can show us the classroom and what she has been up to....oh and to decorate cookies!  Last year, we attempted to help Haylee decorate the cookies, this year, we stood back and let her at it!

Here are some pictures of her decorating and then eating the cookie!

  

There was a little boy sitting across from Haylee when decorating the cookies.  I didn't notice it, but B and my dad did....the little boy was dipping the knife into the frosting, put the frosting on his already decorated with sprinkles and sugar cookie, and then stuck the knife into his mouth to lick off the sprinkles and sugar...and then he repeated it!  One of the teachers noticed it too and saw us commenting on it, walked over to us and told us that's why they don't reuse the frosting.....

Yummy...that's all I have to say!

The Christmas Story

Hilarious story as told by a couple of elementary school aged kids!

http://video.aol.com/video/kids-get-christmas-story-all-wrong/2347578138

Merry Christmas to all!

Rhythm Rocker....

I work all day, so I don't get to the joys of daytime TV.  I came across this link from the show, The View.   Few things that I must comment about:

1) This is so NOT how I dance, nor would I encourage anyone to learn how to dance using this!
2) There are thousands of products out there that can help get you into shape (thigh master anyone?!)  I have never bought into them, and will not start after seeing this clip!


http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/12/17/sherri-gets-down-with-the-rhythm-rocker-on-the-view-video/
(highlight and right click the clip, then click on go to site)


Dear God I am scared and VERY thankful that I have a job and am not subjected to this during my day!  Give me running on the treadmill any day!  Who hates going to the gym now?!?!

Renovation Realities

When Byron and I bought our house 5 years ago, we knew that there were certain areas of the house that HAD to be remodeled above and beyond just the paint and accessories.  Unfortunately, there were some other things that needed to be done to the house (new furnace, new windows, new stucco, and the backyard just to name a few!) before we could embark on the fun of really remodeling the interior of the house. The time has come; we are now ready to remodel our master bathroom!!!   Woo Hoo, I am sooooooo excited!  We are gutting the entire bathroom.  Nothing that is in there now will be coming back into the new bathroom.  We have our new vanity already sitting in our dining room, and our claw foot air bath should be delivered around the 22nd of December.  We have been talking about what we want to do in the bathroom for a few years now, so now that we are finally at the point where we are purchasing the new tub, the tile, the vanity, it makes me soooo happy and excited!

Byron claims that the project will be finished in 8 - call it 14 to 20 weeks, since he will be doing most of the work himself.  I doubt it will take that long - let me rephrase that - I KNOW it won't take that long. I can handle upwards to 10 weeks, but too many more than that, and well....it won't be more than that!  :)

Here are some pictures of our bathroom before the demolition began...please don't pass judgement on how nasty it was before - was it our choice to have carpet in there - HELL NO, but we were young(er) and did everything we could to get into this house, even taking carpet in the bathroom!

I am going to try to keep updates on the progress of the bathroom reno.  Wish us luck - we're going to need it!

Choo Choo

The Toy Train Show was at the Merchandise Mart the weekend after Thanksgiving.  My parents suggested that we take the kids to the show.  The main room was bursting at the seams with vendors set up selling model trains.  My mom and I, with the kids walked past the rows upon rows of train cars not really knowing what we were looking at while Byron and my dad were stopped at table #2 talking about the different size scale models, train cars, etc.  When I was younger we had a train set up in the basement and Byron's dad is HUGE into model trains, so it was nice that they could talk about all the trains.

They did have some areas that were more kid friendly, so mom and I headed there while the boys talked.

Carter had a blast, running from each train set up to the next yelling "choo choo"

Santa was there and we attempted to sit on Santa's lap.  Haylee was ok, but Carter was very leery of the situation!

We had such a good time.  Thanks so much to mom and dad for taking us!