The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

We had another successful working weekend at the Lake House. Yep, we're appropriately calling it the Lake House from now on. Saturday we ate dinner there for the 1st time. We got Subway and ate in the living room looking out at the ducks on the lake. Travis said it's the kind of place you'd vacation to, and we are blessed to get to live there.

THE GOOD: The carpet is all removed! Amelia and I had it all pulled up before Travis even got off work on Saturday. Admittedly, I think I did more work than she did though. The load he took to the dump from last week was over 4,000lbs. That's a lot of carpet and brick!! Also Saturday, I pulled staples in the bedrooms while Amelia napped. Fun times, I tell you what! Sunday Pat and the girls came over and we finished removing the glued under-layer in the dining room/office while Travis and Grandpa Don worked on the electrical stuff some more. Most of the floor is down to something we can work with now.

Thanks to Pat, we have a scale drawing of the Lake House, both as it is now, and how we want it to be when we're done. Travis and I are looking it over this week and making sure we like how it will be laid out. It's so amazing to see it as it will be. This is going to be one terrific house!

The well works! Sunday afternoon we turned on the well to see where it comes into the house which leads me to the bad...

THE BAD: The water only kind of comes into the house. It starts bubbling out of the ground in a hole outside the kitchen wall, and we're not exactly sure where it should be coming into the house at. The second place it enters is a sawed off pipe at ground level in the crawl space of the bathroom. After some discussion it was decided that we'll just redo the well connection and start in with fresh plumbing. Since we were going to replace it all anyway, it's just an added step, albeit a very time consuming one.

THE UGLY: Amelia's room seems to have a bit of a mold problem. There were some old cemented (because glued doesn't even begin to describe how well these were attached to the floor) laminate tiles under the carpet on the north wall. Pat and I tried to ply them up, but were getting nowhere fast so Travis set to work to just cut out what we thought would be a relatively small section. As soon as he started to pry up the top subfloor layer you could smell it. There is another subfloor layer that is completely rotten and moldy. The previous owners had just laid a new layer over the one that was falling apart. There are several spots where you could easily fall into the crawl space if you stand on them. We pried back a few more piece to see how extensive it was, and well, Amelia will be getting a new subfloor. I think we're going to work on getting it all removed next week so the braces can air out. We did check the other rooms, and the kitchen is much the same way, which we kind of expected, and the hallway will need to be ripped up to, but the other rooms look ok. It's a little more plywood that we thought we would need at first glance, but in retrospect, it's lucky the tiles didn't come up or we might not have known that was all under there until it would have been much more of an inconvenience.

The major demolition is probably about 90% done now. We have a little more flooring to remove, and some sheetrock. Then it will be mostly building back up. That is great, but it means that the progress, although steady (hopefully) will feel slower from here on out.

Oh the Treasures You'll Find

We got the keys to our new house on Friday!! And the work began Saturday afternoon. Travis and Grandpa Don worked on figuring out the electrical and water situations. Both look to be in good order. We have lights and heat with not a lot of work involved - at least not yet. They were able to figure out which breaker went to the well pump and Travis started it up briefly. He said he could hear water so that looks like a good sign the well won't have to be redug, and the pump won't have to be replaced. Next week we'll turn the water on and look for a geyser so we know where to start the plumbing.

While they were doing that, Amelia, Pat and I worked on getting a detailed measurements of the place. We started with the outside. Just after we started a huge flock of geese landed in the lake and Amelia was ecstatic. It brings tears to my eyes to imagine her growing up here. Once we got done outside, we moved to the inside. I can't believe how big it is. No it's not a huge McMansion, but it's perfect for us. Pat assures me she can make a drawing out of all the lines and numbers on the graph paper.

Sunday we began demolition, starting with carpet removal, and oh did we find some great stuff. This is the carpet we found under the understated beige in the living room and brown in the hallway. Someone had an interesting decorating ecstatic to say the least.

Allie did a great job weed-eating the outside to make it look a little neater and Polly was a huge help in taking care of Amelia on one of her very grumpy days. At the end of the day we de-carpeted all 3 bedrooms and what will become the entry. We also got rid of the brick monstrosity in what will be the office, and ripped out the cedar strips on the dining room wall. It's going to be great when it's all done.

From this: With some hard work:To this:Amelia's verdict on renovation: "It's hard work! I need a nap..."

Look Out World!

HERE SHE COMES!!
Amelia waited to do her 1st actual steps at home, while both Travis and I were there. We were absolutely ecstatic!! And so proud of our growing girl.

I forgot you can only take videos one way with out camera so just tip your head a little and give your neck a little workout for the next one :)

All Amelia's Friends

My friend Mel just compiled this video from clips she took at our trip in Kansas City. I know most you don't care, but it makes me really happy so I'm posting it :)

My Blankie!

10/1/2009

It's a Storm!

10/4/2009

A dust storm that is. For 2 days we had almost constant dust. It was the most sustained storm of it's kind I've been in. Usually they're just here and gone. By the time it was gone, absolutely everything was covered in a thick layer of the local farmer's top soil.

These pics were taken in the middle of the day, and it was just that dark because of the dust cloud.

UH-OH!

10/17/2009

In an effort to keep Amelia out of the kitchen we moved her playpen, and Costco sized packages of toilet paper, and baby wipes to make a makeshift gate until we could find a real one. A curious thing happened...she pulled herself up! I was shocked and ran out to tell Travis who was mowing the lawn. He was a little annoyed I had interrupted him, but quickly forgave me, lol.

Once Daddy was there, she wouldn't do it anymore so I had to use a little coercion. She has a favorite toy. It is a small yellow rubber ducky that started out as a bathtime toy, and is now her constant companion. I stuck her duck at the back of the toilet paper, and instantly she stood up to get it.

She was none too impressed with being locked out of the kitchen though so she employed her trusty sidekick in a scheme to innocently get to the kitchen. She would toss him over the edge and then proceed to climb over the barricade. "Hey Mom, my duck just happened to go to the other side and I HAVE to go get him!" Unfortunately this always ended in a face plant on the linoleum if we weren't fast enough so she decided there was an obvious flaw in her plan. I'm sure she and the duck are brainstorming ideas to get through the newly installed gate as we speak.