Days 2 & 3, Van Build

Day Two--Bean, Bug, and I did more measuring and cutting for the insulation between the ribs.

Some of these spaces are complicated. And it gets dark just after 5, which means when we can't start until 3:30, we don't have long to work.

Day 3 was more of the same, but this time just Daddy-o and Bean worked on it. And they only have one last (complicated) piece to cut and then it's time to glue them down!

This week has proven that things are going to take longer than I'd originally thought, but I'm hoping they don't all take this much longer. And hoping that we can start to put in longer days. We need to block out more long days, especially through the winter when it gets dark so early. That September deadline is looming.

Ringing in the New Year

New Year's Day and time to start the real work on the van! We are starting with nothing and hoping to make this into a comfortable home on the road.

Today we started on the floor. We hoped to get all of the subfloor done. . .

But it turns out it's a lot more work than we'd hoped to get all of the pieces cut and fit. We're using foam board insulation between the ribs on the floor and then as a whole sheet under the plywood subfloor. And those ribs make it hard to cut all the pieces to fit in that first layer.

We spent several hours working and don't have much to show for it, haha. But at least we have gotten a start and now have something to work on this week.

 

Family Christmas

We got to have my mom and brother here for a week of Christmas fun and it was awesome. Lots of hanging around the house playing games and watching movies, but we did do a few things. We went to the Oakland LDS Temple to see the lights and so Rara could come with Bean and Bug to do baptisms in the temple which was a neat opportunity.

Unkie waited outside with Peanut, checking out the views from the top (not Unkie's favorite thing :)), and the visitor's center. The grounds were beautiful.

We also got to gift a couple of experiences since they were going to be with us for the holidays this year. The kids dipped candles with Rara, which was a really fun (and mildly stressful) activity. It's fairly straight forward and very soothing to dip the wicks over and over. Keeping the wax melted was the only tough part.

It was fun to watch how quickly they go from skinny little wicks 

to fat little tapers.

I love gifts that mean spending time together, and this one meant we all have new candles, too!

I didn't take any pictures, but Daddy-o and I also took Unkie and Rara to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Uncle Yu's, which is the best Chinese food I've ever tasted. We all loved it! 

Their last night with us, Unkie helped Peanut make us dinner from the Harry Potter cookbook he'd given him. They had picked out the recipes beforehand and Peanut was pretty excited to fix us foods from the book--Shepherd's Pie, Brussel Sprouts with Béchamel sauce, and Aunt Petunia's Trifle. Peanut loved saying the word béchamel, and running in and out of the preparation process to play with Legos and his stuffed seal, Sea. Unkie was very patient with it all (and "helped" make dinner actually happen.) The food was all amazing and we ate it all. I think Shepherd's pie may have to go on our regular meal rotation--who knew it would be such a hit?!

I think it's pretty safe to say that assembling the trifle was Peanut's favorite part. Layering chocolate pudding, raspberries, and pound cake is fun :)

I'm looking forward to more meal help from our new little chef!

I didn't get much photographic documentation, but there was a lot puzzle making, Lego building, and game playing while they were here, too. We got several new games for Christmas between all of us, and while we didn't get to all of them, we did play Saboteur and Patchwork, along with lots of old favorites. It's been such a fun week, and, as always, we're sad to see them go. (The kids are going to be especially sad because it's also time to get back to some normal schedules--of chores and homework that needs to be done before the break is over.)

Bathroom is Done!

 Finally, the moment you've all been waiting for ever since I posted THIS photo:

We've been getting questions for the last year about our bathroom and if it is done yet. Well, exactly 12 months later, it was fully functional, and a few weeks later, it is done!

So, the before:

And the after: 

Before:

 After:

(We do eventually want to refinish the tub because it doesn't go with the rest quite as well as we hoped, but we didn't really want to match everything to it too closely because we didn't like it.)

Before:

After:

 And the best part, after a rocky start, where I wondered if I was doomed to take lukewarm showers forever, Daddy-o figured out how to adjust some valve inside and now, using the shower is as awesome as it looks.

Who knew that all of this:

 (Oh, the rot. I'm still so glad that we didn't fall through to the dining room while showering one day.)

could eventually, with a lot of work by Daddy-o, our plumber, the grandparents, and our tile guy, turn into this:

Seriously, I'm in love. Every time I walk into the room, I feel like I'm in a resort or something. It was worth the year of sharing a bathroom with 3 kids.

Bean's Bedroom

Bean's room is finally done. She moved in about a year ago, we got the walls painted purple quickly, and then have been adding the accents slowly.

The final touch was her duvet cover that my mom made. They picked out the fabrics together last year when Rara was visiting and then she started it this year, finishing it up on the most recent visit.

It all came together nicely and she's loving it.

There are still a few other things I'd like to do, like refinish her desk chair and we need some type of bookcase to contain all the books that end up in her room. Eventually.

Slight Change of Plans

This was not a sight I ever planned to see. I was in the other room when I heard noises and this was what I saw when I came running. Daddy-o was working on the bathroom demolition and stepped on a exposed rotten area and luckily caught himself before he fell any further.

So I guess the popcorn ceiling in our dining room will be removed after all. We'd kind of given up on the idea after doing the kitchen right when we moved in, but this is making it a bit of a necessity!

Better Late Than Never

 It's only taken a year--Peanut's room is finally done.  We got it painted before he was born, but the decorating has struggled.  I knew if I didn't get it done before he came, it may not happen, but honestly, being sick for the entire pregnancy really affected my productivity.  But I've dabbled here and there, and now the room is pretty much how I want it.  Good thing, too, since Peanut may only be in there for another year or so before we play musical rooms.

 Refinishing the dresser/changing table was the last project I finished a few weeks ago.  I saw this idea here and loved it.  And with the $3 sample jars of paint, its a very inexpensive way to add a splash of color.  After almost 8 years, the dresser needed a new coat of paint anyway, and it will be easy to redo the drawers if we change the color scheme.

 The stars over the bed have been hung for awhile now.  I wanted something reminiscent of a mobile, but in the color scheme of his room, and making a few stars to hang from the ceiling seemed like a quick fix.  Peanut was fascinated when I first put them up and still loves it if we send them all swinging.

The fabrics I picked out for his quilt had a splash of orange in them, so I painted the little shelf over his dresser and the coat hooks orange.  Not a color I'd feel safe using much of, but I think its fun to have a little bit here and there.

 And the "H" on his wall is a yarn-wrapped piece of cardboard.  I've seen a lot of different ones on Pinterest--and it looked so easy, but the execution was a little trickier, maybe because I picked a style of letter that had curved spots.  I had to do some notching, and a little hot glue, to get the yarn to stay, but I like the finished product.

 And the quilt.  I need to get a better picture of the whole thing laid out.  That project was all my mom.  She's made a baby quilt for each of my kids and I love them.  She also helped out with the curtains and valence when she came to visit this last summer.  Even with them almost complete, it still took me several months to get them hung.  I'm just not good at finishing things up when I have so many distractions (and so little sleep).

Finally, I love having these pictures of my sweet little guy.  When I hung these up, he wasn't much bigger than in the photos, but now, it's been almost exactly a year and its getting harder to remember that sweet little newborn who just snuggled and slept so much of the time.  Peanut loves to say "night-night" to the babies, too.

Only thing left is some sort of bookcase or book holder on this wall under the photos.  I wanted to repurpose some wood spice racks from Ikea, but they haven't been in stock for months so I may need to give up and do something else.  Or if I wait another year, Bean will be ready to move in here and I can completely change the whole thing.

12 in 12

Remember that list of things Daddy-o had planned for his paternity leave?  It started off as his 12 Projects in 12 Weeks, only as we brainstormed what would be nice to get done, the list grew to 28 items.  And then, with the reality of a new baby and the sleep deprivation that always brings, 2 other kids out of school all summer, and the HOT, muggy weather that we've had, even getting 12 projects done became a challenge.  Some of the items on the list would have been a summer project by themselves--writing a life history, transcribing journals, scanning all the non-digital photos in our house--lot of time consuming ideas here.

But Daddy-o did finish off several things this summer, including my craft room, which was one of my top priorities. And he did the lighting in our kitchen which has been on hold for almost 3 years because we weren't quite decided on what we wanted.  But I think the overall effect is great now, and its so useful having lights over the sink again.

 Daddy-o also braved the mugginess a few mornings to try to do some damage control on the house.  He got rid of some mildew we had growing on the side of our house and painted the trim on the front of the house which really needed to be done--its amazing how fast wood weathers here.  We can see the appeal of the all brick homes.

Another project that was almost finished last summer but needed a few more hours of work--the deck rails were finally all replaced and the whole thing is stained.  Now we're just waiting for it to cool down so we can enjoy it again.

Throw in cleaning out gutters, fixing a kitchen drawer, and planning and making dinner, and spending time with his wife and new child (I added those last 2 to his list because I wanted to make sure he got credit for the time he spent doing what I really wanted to have done this summer), and he made it to 9, with some other partials (the mission journal transcription was started).

And he's still plugging away at the list.  There is a ceiling fan in parts on our bedroom floor right now, just waiting for one more piece before installation.  Thank goodness for nights and weekends.

Craft Room Makeover

This room has been a long time in the making.  And its been a group effort.  One of the bedrooms has laminate flooring, which seemed like the perfect surface for easy clean up of paper bits, threads, spilled beads and other craft bits.  I really wanted to make a space that both the kids and I could enjoy, and we have certainly used it and enjoyed it along the way, but we were sadly lacking in storage space and the room was pretty barebones. It's at least very functional at this point, and is looking nice, too.

Before:

After:

I think I started with painting and getting/making tables for me and the kids 2 years ago. And then Uncle D. started the bookcases and bench under the window over a year ago when he was staying with us.  Daddy-o and I worked on them some this last year, but Peanut pretty much took over our lives by last October, so it was slow going.

On my side of the room, Before:

After:

I still need a few more specific storage things, like something for all my scrapbook paper, but it will be a work in progress as I decide what I want.  The bookcases are so convienent and can hold a lot of stuff.  And the empty desktop is calling my name--I may actually start working on some things again.  Its been a pretty dry year, craft-wise.

The kids side, Before:

After

Their table needs to be repainted and finished with polyurathane to (hopefully) make it easier to clean the surface, and we need some chairs for the table Daddy-o built them a couple years ago--they've been sharing a small bench that is too tall for the table, and not long enough for two people to comfortably sit at.  I also need to do something for their paper storage as well--I'm thinking maybe something hung on the wall.  But they are really excited to have so many of their art supplies easily accessible.

The closet corner, Before:

After:

My sewing machine will normally be on the shelf over there, but its been in heavy use with all the projects my mom was trying to help me finish before she left.

The window area was one of the things she helped with:

I've had the fabric for a long time, but she finally made it into a cushion for the bench and a window valence.  I think this is the perfect little nook for the kids to curl up and read.

Thanks, Rara, Uncle D, and Daddy-o, for helping me to make this room what I wanted!