A floor, some walls and (more) mud

So I promised another update on the progress of the house. Like I said earlier, I can't seem to keep up with posting about the progress, but that's a good thing!


Wednesday afternoon, our framers showed up and immediately got to work. The picture below is from the first half day.

There are only six guys, but they work at an incredible pace. So they framed the walk-out basement wall and set the i-joists for the first floor. 

They arrived early Thursday morning for a full-day of framing. I was in town getting Baylen's pictures made so I stopped by after lunch to take a look around. They were installing the subfloor while I was there. I was very impressed - it was starting to look more like a house. 

The gravel area where there is no floor or framing is the garage.

This is from the backyard looking at the house. 

The empty area on the back is going to be a porch.

I took this shot from that to-be porch. We actually have a backyard now (it was just a dirt pile). After we clean up some of that brush, we'll have a beautiful view!

This is from the left side of our property. That's Heath walk-out basement.

Imagine him gutting deer down there.

Looking into the basement. It's not going to be a finished basement other than a workshop and a "hunting room."

Stairs! (sort of)

So that's the progress as of Thursday afternoon ... and here's the story. As I was leaving the land that afternoon, I backed up and out the driveway (with a sleeping Baylen in the backseat). I was super proud of myself for not getting stuck in the mud up close to the house. As I was getting closer to the road, I turned the wheel to back into the neighbor's driveway so I could pull out, and yep, I got stuck in mud. I tried forward, and I tried reverse, slinging mud everywhere -- all the while a sleeping baby still in the backseat. 

I wasn't making any headway, so I called Heath (who was in Nashville). After laughing a bit, he called a neighbor (who wasn't home) and then he called the framers. After awhile he called me back and informed me that the framers were coming to help. How embarrassing ... I looked up and five Amish guys were walking down the driveway. After surveying the situation, I got back in the car and they pushed me backwards out of the mud (only after mentioning something about deserving donuts) and I was free (Baylen still asleep, too!).

                                       

My mess - you can see the framers walking back down the driveway... sigh

A friend commented after hearing the story, "God has a way of humbling us."

Friday brought even more excitement - at least for me. I hadn't been completely excited or pumped over the house (my focus was more on two little boys). But when I saw these pictures (and the video Heath took), I started to feel different.

We have two of the exterior walls! Woo hoo!

And here's those same two walls from the other side.

There you have it. The last three days of progress and a funny (ha ha) story. I'll be taking a trip to BG this week to pick out a bagillion different things - from bathtubs to fixtures, cabinets, counter tops . . . I get a little overwhelmed just thinking about it. Anyone want to help?

An old fad, a favorite toy

Does anyone remember Pogs? Anyone?

Pogs were one of those quickly famous and rapidly fading out fads from the 1990's. (Kind of like slap bracelets and anything neon in the 1980's.) The purpose of having Pogs were to play the game Pog with them (that was a deep sentence, right?). Anyway, you collected Pogs, and then used the heavier Pogs to "slam" piles of them. The game reminds me a lot of marbles. You got in trouble, too, if you had them at school because the loser lost some of their Pogs. 

Point of this story?


Mom and Dad have some of our old Pogs at their house, complete with a Pog case and all, (They even have the ones handed out by our orthodontist...) and the boys (especially Kennick) loves to play with them. They don't actually play the Pogs game with them, but instead they toss them around, pick them back up, stack them, roll them, etc.


A few weeks ago while I was at my favorite craft store, I found some wooden nickels that gave me an idea. I could use the wooden nickels to make more Pogs with Cash. I'm always looking for fun ways to pass the time during cold winter days, and this was going to be our next project. We have been working on learning the alphabet with the two bigger boys. Some days we paint pictures with the letters, and other days we make the letters out of Play-doh. The perfect combination would be Pogs with the alphabet on them. Fun times!

Wooden Nickels

Grandad** and Cash painting the wooden nickels (soon to be Pogs)

Baylen wasn't interested in the paint, but instead he ate puffs off the wooden nickels.

They looked great!

After painting the other side, we applied stickers to each side.

Big letters on one side,

and little letters on the other.

Cash has already been stacking them, slamming them, and spelling his name with them. I love listening to him play with them. He'll pick up one and say the letter out loud. Most times he'll say a word that starts with the letter, too. Here's to an old fad that has become a new favorite!

** I think I've mentioned before that my dad is off work on Thursdays. He's such a great sport with my ideas and activities. He always participates - whether it balloon tennis, painting snow, making a kitchen out of cardboard, or making Pogs. We love Grandad!

Progress

How's the house coming along?

Interesting you should ask.

I can't seem to blog fast enough to keep up with it.

So in a really pitiful attempt to catch you up on how things look ... 

here's the past two days of progress in two pictures.

Framing - Day One (looking into the basement)

Framing - Day Two (working on the floor)

I'll post more pictures and tell you a funny (and rather embarrassing story) this weekend. 

Mud and bricks

Last Sunday we decided to stop by the land on the way to PawPaw's house. So after church and a quick lunch, we loaded up in the car complete with our mud boots. When we got there, Heath met with a subcontractor while B and I looked around at the progress. Cash had some fun of his own...

It didn't take long for him (and his boots) to find every mud puddle on the lot.

He LOVED splashing in the puddles! I didn't think he would get this muddy, so I didn't pack a change of pants. But that's okay.

100% boy

In the meantime, Baylen and I checked out the brick. What do you think?

The guys checked out the slick basement slab, too. It looked awesome! 

Looking at them, I was reminded at how much Baylen favors Heath. Don't you think so, too?

And what did lil' man do before we left?

More splashing - but this time with pieces of block!

He was absolutely covered in mud from head to toe! How fun!

Of course, Baylen wanted to join in the fun, but we didn't have boots for him. Maybe next time.

All in all, it was a good afternoon. After we left the lot, we drove to PawPaw's house for supper. Heath grilled some delicious burgers. Yum! Family and good food - the best way to end a weekend!

More YMCA fun

So did I tell you that we ended up joining the YMCA here in Glasgow? AND we signed up lil' man for swimming lessons.


We decided that before going to swim lessons, we needed to get Cash in the water and let him play some. Of course, we invited the Oldenkamps to come, too. Cash loved jumping off the side of the pool to Heath and kicking his feet. But closer to the end of the evening, Heath and Derek discovered the fun of noodles and the water jets. Take a look...

Our water baby LOVED getting sprayed with the water,

and Heath loved spraying him with the water!

Yes, Cash is our water baby. He has never minded to get water on his face.

Cash tried spraying the water, too, but didn't quite figure it out.

I know you were wondering about Baylen. He was there. I was in the water with him for awhile, but he started getting cold, so after getting dressed, we sat and watched the big boys play.

The Bachelor Pad

Did you guess it?

Those three pictures were from Cash and Baylen's new "bachelor pad."

No, it' not a girly kitchen. Instead, this is the masculine "bachelor pad" complete with stainless steel appliances. Very manly.

I saw the idea in the Disney Family Fun magazine before we moved and thought it would be great to make once we're settled at Grammy and Grandad's with lots of empty boxes.

So one Thursday afternoon (the day Grandad is off), we searched high and low for recyclables and, with a lot of help from the two boys, it was a huge success!

The only thing we really had to buy was duct tape and a cheap bowl for the sink.

Mom had already bought some inexpensive "kitchen toys" at Big Lots, so once it was finished, the boys started pretending!

Cash loved washing the dishes in the sink. He gets this from Marlo and Heath, the expert dishwashers in the family. Cash is going to make some gal pretty happy one day.

Baylen, on the other hand, was caught the next day coloring the sink with a crayon. (I tell you - these boys are day and night!)

So if you have some empty packing boxes, old lids from plastic containers, and some pumps from lotion bottles, go for it! Make your favorite little ones their own kitchen!

Wordless Wednesday