We have made it to the halfway point!

It was a long weekend, but we finally finished the living room, which gets us halfway through the house. We are so excited that we can likely finish between evenings this week and Memorial Day Weekend. Yahoo, the end is in sight!

This is looking down the hallway through the middle of the house. You can see we are almost through the living room at this point.

This is also a look at the living room. By the end of Sunday we made it to the wall on the left.

The entry is complete, even the closet is done!

Jackson was our big helper this weekend. He even enjoyed sweeping up dust and a few cars!

I am putting leveling compound in the transition between the raised living room and the old dining room. My contributions are fewer, but I still get to put my name on the list of helpers!

Here Shaun us carefully measuring to fit a piece into the closet.

Shaun with the nail gun and an evil looking face! They certainly have a love hate relationship!

We are into the old dining room now. Hopefully this will get finished up this week!

How to Beat the Heat...

This past weekend it was in the nineties and we did everything we could to stay cool. Luckily we have AC, but Jackson much prefers his methods!

Jackson in his swimming pool for the first time this year.

When we put in the fountain in the backyard we never thought it would be such a great playground...

...but clearly naked fountain time is all the rage this season!

Pants are also optional inside and out, as it is much cooler to play in just a t-shirt.

Even Gatsby tried to beat the heat. She loves the outside, but found a shady spot and made herself as flat as possible!

Tricycles and Piggy Banks are Great!

We have a very big boy now! He learned to ride his tricycle all by himself recently. He is very excited about being able to ride like a big boy!



Okay, he is riding like a big boy, but every now and then Daddy needs to give him a little help. Just a push to get him going!


Another love that Jackson has is his piggy bank collection. One of his favorites is his rocket ship bank. Whenever he finds money or is given money he runs right to his room and makes a deposit. It is priceless! His rocket bank is almost full!

Let the flooring begin!!!

This past weekend we started laying the new hardwood floors! We have finally begun and it feels so good.

Jackson and Mommy look like they are helping, but we all know that looks can be deceiving!

Our first pile of boards. There will be many more where this came from!

This was our first days work, which doesn't look like a lot, but feels huge because now we know what we are doing. Or at least Shaun knows what he is doing!

We have made even more progress day by day. Here Jackson is helping Daddy shoot staples into the floor to keep the wood down.

We had one more closet to empty and remove carpet from. I had to at least show that I was doing something useful in this project. I feel rather useless with this big belly of mine. Here I am pulling staples and tack strip so Shaun can start the floors!

Jackson got up from his nap and found me working in the hall closet. He just had to have a snuglle with Mommy right then! I couldn't resist!

Prepping to start laying the floors!

After we ripped everything out, we had a little wall repair to do. My mom used her skills to help us patch the sheetrock and get the walls ready for a single color of paint!

Grammy Claudia mudding the patched sheetrock.

Since we are moving the dining room from its old home you can now see the table and charis int heir new home. Also notice the walls, they are all one color now!!! Eventually we plan to add some floor to ceiling bookshelves with a bench seat in between. That should finish off the new dining room nicely!

In addition to prepping the walls we also had to tear out the kitchen floor to make way for hardwoods. The old homeowners put down plywood before they replaced the floor with peel and stick tiles. Since that makes the kitchen slightly higher it had to go.

This job was unexpected and is slow going. Who knew plywood could be so tough to take up!?!

Almost there, just a few more square feet and the kitchen will be ready for a new floor.