House Progress

Well our contractors started on Monday morning bright and early. They have been here everyday since until today. The rain has made it impossible to work today. We have 1 new window in Ahna's room, her other window is temporarily boarded up, the bathroom is boarded up for good, 2 new windows in our bedroom, 2 new windows in Kenzi's room, 2 new windows in the kitchen, 2 windows put in the garage, 1 new door placed in the garage, 1 door replaced in the garage, foam board is going up, tyvek is going up, and 1 wall of the house has siding on. I will be adding lots of pictures of the progress below.

Day 1 Progress...if you want to call it that. Lots of tearing off the old siding happened today.


These pictures are after our first delivery.


Day 2 Progress. New Windows went in, foam board went up.



Day 3 of Progress




Day 4 Progress...the side of the garage is looking good.

House changes are coming

We got the word that this week is the week to start the renovations on our house. Everything will be delivered on Thursday morning. Our contractor will be here either that morning or Friday morning and start work. We are so excited. I can't wait to see the house during and after the process.

We decided on Natural Clay siding with white trim. It took me a long time to come to this decision though. Now that things are finalized I can't help but second guess my decision. We bought the lights for the house which I really like. We decided to go with a bronze finish.

I am adding the before pictures into this post and then will update as things get done. I am so excited to have all new double hung windows throughout the house. We are looking forward to not feeling the wind blow through the windows even when they are locked. The heating costs that we can save will be great.

Front of the house Before A new light will go up next to the door as well.

North End of the house. The window in the middle on the bottom row is going to be taken out and boarded up. That window is in our bathroom and right in our shower.


The back of the house. We plan to extend the deck out next summer as well another 9 feet to the Left. We are very excited about that. A new light will go in next to the sliding door.

Our back cement patio. Then the next picture is a door into the garage. That door will be replaced as well. The light will be too.



This is the south end of the house.


The garage. We cant wait to get rid of that stinking down spout. At our house water travels uphill. A new Motion light will go up on the garage too.


This picture is of the entrance that we use all time. Then we are also putting in a new door into the garage straight across from the other entrance. A new Light will go up by the main entrance.

Our Camping Trip

We went camping this week and had a blast. It was just the women in the family. My mom, the 8 grandkids, my 2 sister in laws and me. We went to Jellystone Park in Frankenmuth. It is such a nice park over there, especially during the week when it isn't extremely busy. The kids loved the indoor pool. I have some pictures and videos of the kids swimming. They also loved minature golf, the playground and the scheduled activities.

The kids loved the pool...especially mine. Makenzi could swim the width of the pool all by herself the first day (25ft) and by the second day she was swimming the length of the pool as long as somebody was swimming next to her (52ft). She was jumping and swimming back to the ladder. Braxton showed a lot of improvement. Earlier this year at the cabin he wouldn't even jump off the dock even if somebody would catch him. At the pool the first day he started jumping off the side of the pool in his swim vest onto a noodle as long as we were holding his hand. By that night he was swimming to the ladder in his swim vest and with the noodle, climbing the ladder, throwing his noodle into the deep end and jumping in all by himself. He would even do this if nobody else was in the pool with him. He didn't want anybody to help him.

They rode bikes a lot as well. We were in a perfect spot that they could ride their bikes to the playground and we could watch them from the trailer. We had beautiful weather too. They enjoyed seeing Yogi Bear and Boo Boo too. Makenzi wrote a letter to Yogi and is now planning to get a letter in the mail from him.

Today we did a ceramic art project. Each kid got to pick a ceramic to paint. Makenzi picked a flower with a butterfly on it and Braxton picked a shark. They both did a great job painting them. Braxton's shark looks really good. He painted it black and dark blue. Makenzi did a great job painting hers too. She did pinks and yellows.

Overall we had a great time. Scott and I really want to take the kids back soon. Braxton didn't want to come home. He wanted to stay and swim and play.