Here a spackle, there a spackle, everywhere a little spackle...

Yep, that was my house project today pulling nails (and pins, staples, thumbtacks) out of the wall and filling them back in with spackle. It went quick. I even used some mesh tape to patch over a big spot in the boy's room, turned out pretty well.

Then there was the leak in the sprinklers out front. FIL dug a hole around one sprinkler that wasn't working in the middle of the yard, next to a tree. As soon as you would turn them one, the hole would fill with water within a few seconds. So he left that for us to figure out where the leak was. Keith dug one way, realizing that there were too many roots to dig around. So he busted out the saws-all and just started cutting his path instead. This made pretty quick work of things until we came to a large, 6 inch or so root. We found the other side and started digging a little there, then tunneled under it. And poof! The mystery broken pipe was found! It was leaking water very fast, then the water would travel down all the roots in the area, saturating the lawn from beneath. Fun!

On the left is the hole that filled quickly with water. On top right is where we lost the pipe under the root, and found the leak underneath.

To think that you all missed out on this digging, muddy, fun!

The only other housing excitement happened yesterday, supposed to be a none house day, but whatever. FIL gave me the task of finding a working fridge for $200 (or so) on Craigslist. He forgets that I'm quick and have mad shopping skills, so I found a deal.

Our new fridge, perfect size, a little off on color, but it was only $225!

So we plugged it in, and now I can quit toting my cooler back and forth!

Tomorrow we are project listing. YAY, Finally! So hopefully I'll end the weekend much less frustrated.

Graduation Time.....

Thurs night was preschool graduation night. It was cute and the kids got to see and play with all their friends together one last time.

Cody the second day of school

First Field trip of the year

The last field trip

His class, waiting for the ceremony to begin

Walking up for his certificate

With Teacher Janet

We were also given an observation book for the year. During class parents would write down what they saw going on, then they would be filed away. I read through a lot of them throughout the year, but it was fun to read through them again tonight.

He built a lot of boats over the year with the big wooden blocks and loved to play with the marble coaster. Another note that made me laugh said that he was building a space ship out of legos and a leg fell off, he says, "That sucks!" (Gotta watch my mouth!)

At one point he when asked what he was doing at the computer keyboard he said "I'm checking my email."

Then there were the bikes and the trail outside, a favorite activity.

One note said: "The boys were riding bikes, then parked for a bit. Cody then said,"C'mon guys lets get movin! Lead the way, Ben!""

But my most favorite thing from the year revolves around the blue dress. It starts with Cody wanting to play dress up with his friends, one girl asking him to dance. Then a note states that he has added Mary Jane to his ensemble. And finally when he's done, he took off his dress and said, "I'm not a princess anymore!"

The best part of reading the book was that he was always helpful, polite and nice to the other kids. Always good to know that you are doing something right when it comes to your kids!

He had a great year and I know that he will love getting to go an extra day next year.

Hmmmm....

Would it be tacky if I wore dressy flip flops to the Neillo Dinner?

Yes, we are going. The Sacramento CIFCA race was cancelled.

PANIC!!! I don't have $40-60 to spend on something that fits!

Alas, I dug through my closet just now and found I do have a dress that if I wear the right suck-me-in under garments, it doesn't look awful. I do however need new shoes. Tar-jay here I come! I found some cute ones online, but they have some beaded flip-flops that are oh so tempting. We'll see....

Shower, what shower?

On my way home from housing adventures today I hear this from the back seat:

"Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, aallll the way! How much more fun da nanann naann HAY!"


Cody has latched onto Christmas carols, it's funny and annoying all wrapped up in a neat little package!




Today was slow starting and productive in the end!


Cleaned the shower doors. (Oven cleaner did the trick! Thanks Mom!)

Then I put a sample patch of paint on the walls, in the end we will have 11 different colors including the ceiling and moldings! No wonder my FIL is freaking out!

10 of the 11 Colors from Home Depot

Some how I managed to forget the red in the living room, but it turned out great. There is also a crazy bright green in the boys' bathroom, it will look great with the space border and shower curtain.

Jen was able to come over this afternoon and reassure me that I had made good color choices; the red wasn't pink, the kitchen wasn't purple, and the green would calm down with the accents. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Then Rich arrived and he decided that we should take out the back splash in the front bathroom, so we did. We were all afraid of the monsters that we might find behind it, especially after seeing the kitchen, but it wasn't bad. We will do a little patch work around the bottom and put in a new enclosure. Yay,more shopping for me!

Before:

After: Green board already in place. ;)

Rich also drove around the world to find a wall mounting utility sink to install in the garage. This will come in handy when we get to painting, and other things. So that's where I left him, installing the sink.

Another day at the office....

Today's projects were small but had to happen.

The boys' room is now wallpaper free! Curse the person that put it up.

Before:

After:

Another project was removing the shelving systems from the closets:
Then the mirrored wall in the toy room. Pain in the ass! One was ready to fall off the wall so we thought they were being held in place by the shelf brackets, but it was later determined that they were glued to the wall. So one came down easily, to pried off okay and one shattered.

Before:

After: Notice globs of nasty glue!


We also took down the couple of window shades and valances that were left behind, shower curtain rod that is broken, and cleaned the front bathroom. In cleaning discovered that it was worse off than the back bathroom, so we will be doing some remodeling in there as well.

Shopping Trip #1

Saturday was spent shopping. Shopping, shopping shopping!
Our first stop was Ikea where we bought our kitchen and the flooring for the front rooms.
My kitchen is now living in the family room:

Before: nice and empty

Insert Kitchen into Family room: 156+ packages

New flooring for the dining room, living room and hallway:

Then it was off to Lowes and Home Depot for misc. odds and ends, including a microwave/hood unit, dishwasher, ceiling fans and disposal.

Tues afternoon I get to go buy mini jars of paint to get a big sample painted on all the walls. They guy at Home Depot is going to hate me! But once that's done I can lock my colors in and we can make the big paint purchase!

Lame, Lame, Lamo!

**Scroll down past our first work day post to see our visit to the fair!**


So I can no longer put the ability to multi-task on a resume.

I totally forgot about a birthday party we were supposed to go to Sat afternoon. Completely spaced it until Keith was reading the calendar at 10:30 that night.

Lame!

Luckily Cody didn't know about it, but I still have to apologize to the mom on Tues. Ugh.

The Madness Begins.....

We closed on the house on Friday, so today was our first official working day!


We were able to get a lot done:


Kitchen cabinets are removed, appliances in the garage.
Wood floor in kitchen/dining removed.
Carpet in Bedrooms and Hallway removed.
Initial scrub down finished on the master bathroom.
One wall of wall paper removed from boys' room.
Lawns mowed and cleaned up.


Things went smoothly today. We were surprised and not real happy to find mold in the kitchen where the sink was. So we have some wall work to do before we can install the new cabinets. There is also 2 layers of linoleum under the wood flooring, so that will be something else we have to figure out.


The master bath is getting cleaner, but the grout is still gross and there are some stains on the shower bottom I'm not sure will ever come out. As far as the shower stall itself, it's in questionable shape. I'm afraid of pulling it off as to the monsters we may find behind it because it's not fully attached to the wall anymore. Then there are the tiles on the floor, a good number of them have cracked, but it's such a tiny area that it won't take but a scrap piece of flooring to fix it.

The wall paper and border are coming down fairly easily. I only bought one bottle of the remover fluid, so I'll have to go back and get probably 2 more to finish the job. I worked on this as the last thing I did and it felt good to have it go right!
So, here are some before and after pictures from the day.

Kitchen Before

After

Purrty flooring we discovered

Mold = new green board in the kitchen

Boys room before:

Carpet gone! Nothing but concrete and tack strips.

Wallpaper gone! I finished this wall after pictures.

Master Shower Before, notice nasty on the wall in the corner.

Nasty be gone! Doors off to be scrubbed and hosed down and better access to shower.

Stains on the bottom and grout is still pretty bad, but it's better than it was!

So that was our day, very busy! We get to go shopping tomorrow, so that will be fun.

Our morning at the County Fair

Thur. was our last preschool field trip for the year. (Happy Dance, Happy Dance!)

Over the past few months the class has been working on a garden project to show at the fair, making a vegetable garden in a wheel barrow. Then there had to be documentation of each step, showing the kids doing the planting, then learning about how the garden goes from seeds to veggies. The mom that does the music most classes taught them a song about plants and such. They did art and science projects about seed germination and plants. It's been busy, but the kids seamed to enjoy it.

So our first stop at the fair was to visit our wheel barrow:

Another part of the project was documenting the journey on a story board. The moms worked hard and did a great job on it. The top picture by the sun is Cody.

Cody thought it was cool to see it there, realizing he helped put it together.

Then we headed off to the livestock barn to see the animals. There were chickens, turkeys, sheep, rabbits and goats in the first section. The boys loved the rabbits, they had a bunch of different colored ones. Then while visiting the pygmy goats one of the girls brought out a young one for them to pet. He/she was a sweet little goat and loved the attention. From there we stepped outside to visit the cows, and to get a break from the stink. They were showing the cows so we watched for a moment. Then we saw the horses in the arena and moved on to watch. It would have been great, but it was very windy, so the more the horses moved, the more the dirt stirred, and it was in our eyes. So it was off to find a snack and get some relief so me the wind.

MMmmm, fair fries.

We were getting really close to the wall of grumpy/sleepy kids, so we attempted to find them some rides to go on, but no kiddie rides were to be found, or open. But luckily the carousel was running by the entrance, saving the day! The boys love the horses and had a great time.

It was a good time. I love the fair. I will probably make the crazy effort to go to the state fair this year, that or we'll just start traveling around to all the different county fairs, their more fun anyway.