knocking down two walls

This top picture is the wall walking up the stairs. We are removing it to put up a rail instead of the wall. I don't know how I will live without the beautiful wallpaper left over from the 70s!

The best part about this picture is that there is now a hole to look into the basement! The kids LOVE it, I guess it had some electric that had to be removed so it caused a hole. I am thinking of leaving it so I can yell at the kids easier and they might can hear me!! ha

The next picture is the wall between the existing dining room/kitchen. We are getting rid of this wall and opening up the room. The existing kitchen will turn into the dining room and the new addition will become the new kitchen.

Santa placed the beam on a rainy day! I will say, he is awesome!!! He is so organized, when it has rain in the forecast, he already knows what can be done while he waits to get back outdoors!! He is also good at keeping Zan and I organized! Before too long, I am gonna hire him for Nanny 911 since he witnesses all the turmoil!

Frame work for Kitchen/family room

WOW!!! The part we have been waiting for!! Up till now, it was all the behind the scenes preparation work. Today, we came home and saw the actual framing of the new part of the house! Looking in front of the sliding doors is the new kitchen and to the left is an extension of the existing family room.

How long till you think before the kids are dangling from the planks of wood? They are a bunch of monkeys!!

Wood delivery

I bet the neighbors love us!!! Everyday, there are trucks, concrete trucks, or streams of water rushing down the street!!

The wood for the framing was delivered today! Very exciting, I believe we will now start seeing the house take shape!!

Bye Bye Basement wall

We are watching each day as the walls begin to be knocked down! The house looks so torn up! And it is!!!

The kids LOVE it!

I have a TEENAGER!!!!

HAPPY 13 BIRTHDAY QUINTON!!!

Unbelievable, my little Quinton is 13! Wow, he is so BIG! He is taller than me and wears the same size shoe as Zan! I still convince him that I am stronger, wiser and in control but not sure how long that will last!

Quinton, you are so compassionate, sweet, caring and the most polite boy! We have been blessed by you! You have taught us how to appreciate everything we have in life! You have a difficult life and still wake up dancing, singing, joking and most of all, you give your brothers SOOO much love and joy! You have shown people how to care for all people no matter how different they may be.

You are loved by so many people. All of your friends, family, and our friends adore you cause you are so unique. The thing I love most about you is your personality, you could never meet a stranger, you are known wherever we may travel. We can be anywhere and people come up to us and tell us how much they enjoy your company. You are truly special!

Family room wall knocked down

The family room wall was knocked out today. As you can see, the bathroom is exposed to the outside of the house. They put a temporary wall up for now so they can start building the frame work.

Santa takes his job too serious!

As you can see, the back wall has been removed from the family room. We have a temporary wall there for now so Santa can start framing next week!!! So Exciting!!!

They have the basement prepared for the new beams. The house is so much fun for the kids, we have two large holes in the basement so they find all sorts of BUGS!!!! UGH, boys!

Yes, MOM, the house is still safe! Santa nails plywood up at the end of each day! Don't worry, I am married to the Ironman!

Happy Birthday Chance

Chance. You are two! Please say it so grandma will quit asking me if you know how old you are!!!

You are so cute! We are so happy we decided to have a third!!! We wonder, what would we do without you??

You get dragged around to a lot of places, you get a lot of time in the car seat doing drop off for school buses BUT you also get slurpees!!!!

You have two wonderful big brothers and three beautiful girl cousins!!! You already have a group of friends! Life is good!

Just Passed the Foundation Inspection

We have been on hold for the past week and a half waiting for the piles of dirt to dry out so we could put it back against the house. Each day, Santa would come and shuffle the dirt around so it could dry. As you can see in the photo, it dried after seven days!

Next, Zan and his father ran the plumbing for the new location of the downstairs bathroom. We are shifting it over to the other end of the house to open up the kitchen/family room.

We had the inspection on Monday and passed so I believe Santa's next step is to start building a temporary wall in the family room.

Santa has hurt his hip so he is recovering at home for a few days which gives Zan and his dad time to relocate our hot water heater. The hot water heater just so happens to be in the exact location of where our new support beam needs to go!

Remembering why?

Each day I come home, the kids immediately run for the huge rock pile in the driveway. Normally, they have friends or neighbors over at the house who also LOVE to run to it. I am forgetting that I also have a huge mound of dirt in the backyard. The kids have put plywood on top of the mud piles to make a see saw! They run back and forth on it playing OR is it that they LOVE to see how much dust they can make appear! The rocks have become our new bike or scooter ramp or just a really fun slide! Again, the dust goes all over them, their shoes and even their backpacks which they can't seem to take off before they dive into trouble!! Either way, I am washing an average of five shoes a day. I apologize for any of your kids shoes that I have skipped washing before returning them home to you. It has become a joke! There are many nights that I am so exhausted from sweeping, washing and chasing that I fall asleep with the kids! I must dream of the mess because I have gotten up several times at midnight and cleaned till 2AM. Zan says I am nuts!

Anyway, with all the chaos and the break from construction over the past week, I wanted to remember why I am doing all this craziness!! There are three explanations! These three cute calm boys need a relaxing space to grow up in!

Moving Along

Santa approached me and said that he had called town hall to get an inspection today. He finished putting the mortar on the basement block and needed to have it inspected so he could back fill the dirt. The bad news was that the inspector was booked all day and would not be able to return till next week! This could be a terrible set back considering the weather is actually gonna be gorgeous this weekend. Without the inspection, he would not be able to continue with his goal for the weekend.

I immediately threw the kids in the car, ran to 7-11 and bought the supervisor a cup of coffee. We had gotten to know the guys in the construction department in the past (don't want to dwell on why). Anyway, I walked in and Bob started saying,"no,no,no" before I even opened my mouth! I continued to toss out the southern accent because I know he enjoys it and blurted out all the reasons that I REALLY need the inspection today. Luckily, all the people took my side and asked him how he could say no so he got on the phone and told the inspector to check out our house today!! I am assuming we passed since it looks like Santa continued to work the rest of the day.

He started my front porch today! I was so excited because this is going to be my favorite part of the house. I insisted to Zan that I had to have a porch so I could drink my coffee and watch the kids play with the neighbors. I really think we will get a lot of use out of it and will be very happy that we decided to add it to the plans.