Two weeks between posts...

I can't believe it has been two weeks since I've posted. We've been so busy I have not had any spare time. I had a trip to Milwaukee and a separate trip to Madison within the same week. A few more trips coming up (one night in Chicago this week and two nights in Fargo the week of Nov. 10) Hopefully I can stick close to home after that.

We also celebrated Wynne's b-day with not one but two parties. One for "family" and one for "friends". Considering that most of Wynne's "friends" are family this was a bit silly. But we did have fun and she got lots of great presents so she is pretty psyched. She is covered in bruises thanks to her new bike so hopefully her doc won't call CPS after her 4-year-old check up tomorrow.

Oh - and the house-- that is going well too. Pete was able to work non-stop last weekend since I took Wynne and Emmett with me to Milwaukee and other than coming home for meals and helping to prep for and attend Wynne's party, he was also at the house this weekend. We're finally "legal" now that the bank paid the vacant building fee and we were able to get a permit. Chad the Plumber will come out tomorrow to get that going and we will be having the electricians out after that.

Pete got some painting done on the outside of the house-- it looks a million times better. Some of the shakes were not the right size and also not painted so they looked awful. Pete got some that are the correct sizes and painted them. Unfortunately the paint we bought ($42!!!!) did not match exactly but it still looks great. He spent yesterday doing lots of things that he won't be able to do once the ground freezes --

Sunday and Monday

Pete spent all day Sunday at the new house - doing more to get the house ready to be painted, buying and putting in storm windows and breaking up what he originally thought was just a small sidewalk. It ended up being many inches thick and was a much more difficult job than he thought. He was hoping to stuff the giant dumpster will all possible debris. But he ended up practically killing himself. He was noodle-like when he came home. I thought I was going to have to carry him to bed.

We headed back to work on Monday. Our contractor was at the house this afternoon to get started on some of the projects we can't do ourselves. When Wynne, Emmett and I were pulling up to the house after work Pete was headed out. He had the new backdoor sticking out of his car so he was either on his way to get that installed or he is running away to someplace in need of a door. I will keep you posted.

I gave Wynne my old jewelry box so she would have a place to keep her jewels and hair decor. She decided to deck out her hair and is trying to figure out a Halloween costume that will allow her to wear lots of clips in her hair. Here is one of her favorite 'dos.

At dinner Emmett decided that he wanted my apple - I offered it to him thinking that he would take a bite or two and get bored - but he ate almost the whole thing (including the stem - ugh)

Paint chips and other snacks

So Pete spent most of the day at the house -- power washing the deck, gutters and house. He also scraped the lead paint off of some of the old windows (more things checked off the "code compliance" list.) Our inspector actually said that lead paint chips taste sweet so that is why the kids like to eat them. Yum.

Speaking of kids. I spent the day with my two. We had a good time though Wynne was on a roll this afternoon. She started off the streak of naughtiness by secretly eating candy that had been in a treasure box she made for Pete years ago. I did not even know it was there (or I would have eaten it long ago...) Then, as I was cooking I heard "Help me" coming from Emmett's room. She was straddled over the crib, one leg in , one leg out. Then she settled down to do some art projects. I was still cooking (making dinners for next week) and she proudly showed me her masterpiece -- she cut pictures of herself and Emmett that I was planning to send to my mom and glued them to construction paper. Good thing she is so cute.

More Demo

Friday was a great day at the house -- we had a "crew" to finish up our demolition. Bob (Pete's dad) and Al (our brother-in-law) came by for the day.

One of the best surprises was upstairs. When we removed the carpet we found some really beautiful floors. Don't think we'll have to do anything other than clean them - finally - something easy!

We also finished the upstairs bathroom - all the walls are off and ready for the new plumbing. I learned a few things about working with a face mask on.

When wearing a face mask you should not:

chew gum and blow bubbles

have anything smelly for lunch

have a runny nose

smile at someone 'cause they can't see your mouth anyway...

We also took full advantage of the dumpster and piled in all the junk in and around the house.

Demo

Our giant dumpster arrived on Wednesday so Pete was able to start demolition. I had to work, but he was able to remove all of the random walls in the basement (not sure what there were used for, but lots of "grow lights" in one room (and no garden in the yard) leads us to one conclusion....



He also took the cabinets out of the downstairs bathroom and ordered replacement glass for the windows that needed to be repaired.



I came by at the end of the day on Thursday to help with the demo. My job was to pry the tiles off the wall in the upstairs bathroom. (The very same bathroom I cleaned just a few days ago. I suspect I am being assigned "busy work".) I carefully removed the tiles so as not to damage the walls. Then we took down the walls. Hmmmmm. OK, not all of the walls. Guess I did not need to be so careful. But tearing down the walls was fun. I was a bit more tentative than Pete (tapping against the wall vs. smashing the wall) but it is done.

Time to scrape the walls...

Our giant dumpster did not arrive as expected today so we had to put off the demolition for another day. We decided to start the looooong process of getting rid of the wallpaper. There were many layers of wallpaper, paint, lemon creme, more paper, etc. The dining room was actually not that bad despite four hours of spray, spray, scrape, scrape. repeat.

The living room is proving to be more difficult. We only got part of one wall done before we had to call it quits. I did get a tip for a special "recipe" that involves downy fabric softener to remove paper. Will try that the next time. Have to go back to work tomorrow so Pete will get to start demo on his own.

Run, Winnie, Run

Wynne took part in the "Toddler Trot" at the Medtronic Family Days, which is the race packet pick-up and family fun day for the Twin Cities Marathon. We went because the AHA was there doing healthy family activities (and also a good reason to get out of the house.) Wynne managed to spill chocolate milk all over this shirt so I'm glad I got a picture of it before it was ruined in case the Oxyclean does not work. They grouped toddlers by age to run 50 yards. It was pretty cute. They also had a diaper dash which is basically a turtle race with babies. They plop them in the middle of a circle and the one who crawls out first wins. Most just cried until their parents came and rescued them.