3 Nights to Go

Well, here I am, about 2 weeks late, making good on my promise to post some more pictures on my blog of the house progress. I'm not sure how many pics I can put on here, but we'll see how it goes.

The first picture is of the outside of the house. We have quite a wood pile in front. This is not as much to look like a dump as it is because there is so much snow on the ground that we can't get to the burm pile right now. Hopefully as it warms up this pile will disappear.

This is a picture of Brandon's office. Originally we planned to do very litte in here, but as we continued to think about it realized that we really should pull up the thread bare carpet now and put some more down BEFORE we put his heavy desk and several big filing cabinets on it. It was quite a process to get the carpet up. It is cement underneath and was well adhered. Thankfully, I didn't have to do it all by myself. After 2 afternoons I had gotten up half of it, but Philip Reed came along and did the other half in about 2 hours! (I bet he had the easy side!) Just kidding. Anyway, we are hoping to install the new carpet tonight.

Another place we weren't planning to do very much was the area of hallway where the laundry was. As we got up the old flooring though we noticed some mildew around the sheetrock and so pulled it out. I wasn't thrilled to take more out, but there was lots of mold and mildew that we got rid of in the process and I'm glad I won't be living with that. So, in this spot we're eventually going to clean up the wall, put in a counter top and replace the floor for a nice place to sort and fold laundry. Our new laundry shoot comes into this area as well.

Ok, I know some of these pictures are hard to understand, but I'll try. For those of you who have been in the house before, this is the new wall that we put in between the kitchen and the "school room". On the left used to be some stairs and then there was a railing on the right that went around a little eating nook in the kitchen. Now it's a wall in the kitchen with a window to see from one room to the other.This is a picture of the kitchen taken from the living room. You can see our new beam and posts and the new sheetrock on the far side. Also there used to be a door to the right of the windows in the center of the picture. We walled up the door to the backyard and opened up the wall to the living room. The overall effect is that it feels lots more spacious and it really is going to give the kitchen a great flow instead of being sort of an intersection or thoroughfare as it was. We eliminated to entry points to the kitchen in favor of having more continuous countertop, a feature that was lacking in the original design. Joe has done a marvelous job getting things built right and Allouette has been the mastermind behind making sure it looks good.This is the view from the kitchen window. I suppose it's hard to see the pretty tree in the foreground, but it has little red berries on it. The other day while we were working, we all had the pleasure of seeing an opposum in the top of the tree helping himself to some of those berries. I think it's one of the few times I have seen one in a live and rounded state. Most of the time I have seen them as flat roadkill.

I bet I can't have a post without a pic of the pink room. Megan Adams painted some butterflies on the walls for Rachel and I'm thrilled with the results. It will go very well with Rachel's bedding and it's nice to have a could of little fun details done to keep the project inspiring and fun.

Here's a never before seen room. This is Jonathon's room. We moved walls in this room to extend the bathroom and then took some of the hall for the bedroom to compensate for what the bathroom took away. Neither wall is in this picture, but you can get an idea of the colors. The walls are colored "Raw Hide" and the ceiling is blue like the other room. I saw an idea for a room this color in a Pottery Barn catalog that I really liked and most importantly, the boys like it. I'm planning to have a navy and white bedding and they have light wood furniture, so it should look very boyish when it's done.

This next picture is a preview of the hall bathroom. We extended the east wall (right side) out into the boy's room by 1 foot and extended the south wall (with the door) 2 feet. That gave us 16 square feet more space in this bathroom for 5 kids and we also were able to make the doorway wider, from 21 inches wide to 30 inches wide. The countertop for the sinks went from a 4 ft. counter with two sinks to a 6 foot counter with sinks and from 18 inches deep to about 23 inches deep. Joe has crafted the cabinets and so the drawers are big, the cabinet spacious and then a specially designed laundry chute under one sink that drops to the launry area below. Allouette just put the grout in around the tile yesterday and the toilet and sink should go in this week. The tub is already in and functional.

This is the master bathroom and another example of Allouette's excellent tile work. She's done the wall tile and the floor tile in here as well, though the grout isn't in yet. It is beautiful! We are closing in on this bathroom as well. We took out a closet behind the bathtub to make this bathroom a lot bigger also. We also raised the shower head from 62 inches to 80 inches. Brandon really appreciates that and the floor which has been soft and rotten in places for several years has been completely replaced. Here's a another pic of the master bedroom. The doorway on the left is the new doorway into the room. It used to be where the second door is now. That area was just hallway that we made into a small walk-in closet. This was especially helpful since we took the closet away for the bathroom enlargement. The third doorway is the bathroom door and is several inches wider, which once again is a great improvement to the 23 inch opening that was there. So overall things are more open, spacious feeling and comfortable. I am so thankful for God's provision to make these changes and for the opportunity to fix the broken and moldy areas.

Finally, a new fun recipe that I made recently thanks to some beef from the Reed's cows: Beef Tenderloin and vegetables on Monterey Jack Cheese Polenta with Arbol Chili Sauce. It was so delicious! Cheese polenta- alot like leftover cornmeal cereal fried, only made with chicken stock and parmesan cheese and then with melted jack cheese on top. The vegetables are yellow squash, zucchini, and red peppers cut into strips and sauted. The chili sauce was super complicated, but was absolutely delicious and I won't bother telling you all how involved it was unless someone is really interested, but I will say it involved making a special broth from scratch to use in a special sauce that is also made from scratch that is then one of many ingredients in the chili sauce. A spicy, deep flavor that went well with the mild flavor of the veggies and polenta. It was yum. And of course, you can't forget moist, marinated, grilled, beef tenderloin medallions! Hope I've managed to make your mouth water.

Ok that's all for the day. Oh and of course, the title...We'll be moving, ready or not, on Tuesday. So you can be praying for us and the children, who, I think have been catching the brunt of this stressful living lately and will be glad when things settle back into a managable routine again.