Drywall...

 Ryan putting up one more pipe in our bedroom before the drywall went up, and Dylan making sure it comes out at the right place.

 Drywall is all up and being mudded!!  {My computer is telling me that is not a word, however, I am still using it!}

No more creepy walls!!   It looks so good already, we can't wait to get in there and paint!!

 We passed our first plumbing inspection and were able to finish drywall on all the walls and set our shower!  A HUGE Thank You to Mike and all who helped with plumbing!

 

 

 

 Since we can't do too much inside we are focusing on the porch this weekend.

 We scraped, sanded and are now priming, and painting.  Pastor Mark came over and started the job and has graciously loaned us his sprayer so we can finish! 

It is looking so much better already...

What a week....

We found out Monday that the drywall guys were able to work at the house this week and NOT next week as we had thought, SO...That began a flurry of events which included ripping out the messed up drywall in Dylan and Jayden's room, and Ryan and Aaron finishing up the electrical Monday night I should say early Tuesday morning!!  But, the good news?  The electrical passed inspection, and now Aaron can return to his family!  There is an added benefit to having your perfectionist friend do your electrical, he ended up going above and way beyond what we were planning because of his perfectionism and we now have all new electrical wires throughout our house! Thank You Aaron!

Tuesday brought a day of more framing, installing insulation and clearing everything out of the house; another late night!   Look who got stuck doing the demo and insulation...unskilled labor, it's the only thing I am capable of!

Speaking of unskilled labor...*funny story*

Ryan let the little boys help him frame, they pounded the nails in all by themselves, and were pretty proud of their work.  When we put the frame in it's place, the 2x6's were a tad bit...off,  ok, so it looked like the leaning tower of Pisa!  The bottoms were right, but the tops were about 2 inches off!  And the funny thing is, my husband was going to leave it!  Christian, our contractor came in and said, "Oh my, I am not seeing this, turn the lights off!"  {That is what Ryan said ("turn the lights off") the last time he framed and Christian came to inspect his work!(let's just say...Ryan is not a perfectionist:)}  His excuse was that drywall would cover it, it was sturdy, and the boys built it.  But when the next guy came in and said "Oh my, what happened here?"  and explained to Ryan that someday, someone may want to find the stud at one point and try to follow that up and...find no stud up there!  Thankfully, he decided to fix it!

Ryan's parents have been busy helping out as well!  Notice Jayden peeking through the hole!

 Ryan is still finishing up framing and we need to finish the plumbing this week as well.

Drywall was delivered on Wednesday and they started hanging it today! 
It is starting to turn the corner, things are really taking shape!

We have a tub!

I have been doing lots and lots of patching and sanding of walls, I think I could continue doing this for like...forever.  They are so bad!  I will have to stop at some point, but for now I am trying to even out the waves, and patch the dents and scratches.

 We have heat runs to the second level, and some framing done as well.

 My friend Laurie called me this week and said "I have always had a fantasy of knowing what it is like to parent 12 children, could I borrow your 6 to add to my 6?"  Umm, sure, but you are crazy!  She ended up with like 18 at one point, and even made them cookies and took them swimming!  Thanks Laurie, they had a blast, and I enjoyed working without checking on kids every few minutes!

  2 tiny horses in my yard!

 The lunch room, {aka our garage}

 This is my next project, {besides the walls} the porch!  Scrape, sand paint...it's a beast, but it is fun when friends stop by to help!  Thanks to all who have spent time with me on the porch, feel free to visit with me there when the work is done too!

We are seeing progress each day, and it has been fun to see who God brings to help us.  I was telling Ryan that it would be helpful to have more orbital sanders, and what did our friend bring over today?  2 orbital sanders!  Thanks Eric, but really Thanks God, because Eric had no idea I needed it, just had extras and thought maybe we could use them!!  So cool.

house update...

closets framed in...

My big project was this floor.  It had several layers of linoleum that were put down with tar like gunk that had to come off!

I had several devoted friends that came out to help me with this nasty job!  We tried my iron, which worked well...

but we found that the wall paper steamer and the heat gun were our best tools for the job!

It was a long and messy process, but, I kept telling myself and those that helped me, that it would be worth it!

Lots of pipes and duct work were brought in and placed throughout the house.

Lots of electrical work went on...

my dad fixed and replaced some of the porch floor boards...

Lucy "helped!"

Cottage Renovators, our wonderful contractor!

So thankful for these guys and a few more that help with entertaining our kids!

The mess that was my floor this morning...

and now, after all of our efforts, this is what we have, beautiful hardwood floors that are ready to be sanded and stained!

So thankful for everyone who has helped us, from food to child care to long hard hours of work, we appreciate you all!

Star and Thunder...

Say What? I have to go home with them?

Meet Thunder{white and tan}and Star{black}

We couldn't hold off our kids any longer, so we went and picked up our horses!

'

We received some instruction...

some kids rode the big horse...

practiced leading them around for a bit...

more horse rides...

Lucy liked to look, but not touch!

and then we loaded them up and away we went!  Yes, in the front of the truck!  OH how we laughed!

Ms. Bev was kind enough to take the other one home for us in her vehicle!  Whew, I was not really thinking hauling a horse in my car sounded like a great idea!

By the way, they both 'had an accident' in the vehicles on their way home...so glad that was not in my car!!

So, we now have ourselves 2 mini horses and the kids are thrilled!  They have brought us much laughter thus far, we hope they will continue to be a blessing...we shall see about that!

Oh the things we do for our children!