Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Wildest yet

Anyone who is familiar with my parent's home knows that the following pictures show a massive change to the home layout. One doorway is now two. The entire flow of their home will be drastically changed. Additionally, the room you can now see on the left, which was previously hardly used, will now be their den (i.e. recliners, t.v., laptop, chillin' room).


Friday, October 26, 2007

It's Friday Again

It is a dark cool fall day, with colder weather on the way for the weekend, and possible rain. We are thankful for the roof over our head and many other blessings.
I made a run to victor a. barnes this morning, because of someone's mistake- and I am not pointing fingers- I had to pick up a piece of formica to correct a problem in the laundry room. It was interesting to be following the traffic into town before 8 AM. It is a fast crowd to be running with! I did not have any trouble finding the place, but it is in a part of town that I do not frequent. I brought that home and then went on to Meijer's to get a few groceries.
It would be a nice day to curl up with a book, but instead I think I will be packing books into boxes, as our builder is going to be doing some demolition in the foyer. That will mean more dust and a smaller space for us to live in!! Things are beginning to crowd in on us.
The tile guy is here and is laying more tile in the bathroom. They did most of the shower yesterday, and it looks so nice. We have the counter top on in the laundry room, and more of the cabinets installed.
I better get at the books.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Construction visuals

Apparently I'm the photo manager for this blog (Brenda), so I'll take creative license and place a description (or personal commentary) under each photo (sorry mom, that's what you get for giving me your sign-in information!). You'll see that my parents are still in the midst of major construction so you'll have to use your imagination to envision the end result. Granted, I'll be placing those photos on the blog when the time comes. ( I approve of this message-Ilene)

Master bedroom. Finally, room for a king-sized bed.

Master bath, no cabinets yet, but a large
tiled shower that could fit and clean a small nation.

Master walk-in closet w/ gorgeous, hand-crafted shelving.
This is my favorite room thus far.

This room used to be a living room, but has since been renamed
the DEN. This room was so close to all the new construction
that it was added to the fast growing list of MORE to re-do.
It'll have new flooring, and an additional door-way.

My second favorite room, the laundry room. I think my mom
will now dance while doing the laundry with her
new front loaders and loads of space for folding
and hanging (laundry that is). This room will also have a desk
with loads of cabinets for storage and crafty items.

I'm bitter about this room, the guest bathroom. It is about twice as
large as their original bathroom that you practically had to walk in sideways.

The guest bedroom with 3 beautiful windows.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Another Week

It has been awhile since the last post, but progress continues. The cabinets have arrived and are being installed. The trim has been put up around the windows and doors, and the doors have been hung.
Everett worked very hard today, and scrubbed/mopped the floors in the addition. There was quite a lot of drywall mud on the floor and had to be removed before the laminate and carpet could be laid. He also cleaned the store room upstairs, sanded the drywall in the upstairs bedroom and applied another layer of mud, and hauled the junk to the dumpster.
I was able to catch up with a 'little bit' of cleaning, laundry and packed 5 good sized boxes with dishes and other items from the china cabinet. I still have a couple of boxes to fill, but ran out of newspaper. Tomorrow's paper should be more than enough to finish the job.
Gord, our builder, is in CO hunting, so he will be gone till the end of the week. His employee will be working though, which we appreciate.

Last weekend we were in Iowa to our nephew Dwight's wedding. He married a lovely gal, Amanda Van Genderen, from Sully. The wedding was in Sully Ref. Church, and the reception was in Newton. It was all very nice, and we had a great time, seeing Glenn and Donna's family, as well as Mom. She enjoyed being there too, and was happy that she could ride to Pella with her brother Quintin and Marie. It gave them a good opportunity to visit.

On our way home from Pella we stopped at Elton and Lauri and had a great time visiting with them. We drove out to see their new, to them, camper. It is a very nice camper, and should give them many hours of camping fun. ( By the way I was still chasing flies out of my car on Tuesday).

Thursday was my regular day to watch Emma so I went to Byron Center. Before lunchtime Emma and I went to see my friend Joanne, and Emma played so nicely. She was tired out and took a really long nap, and Joanne came again, and we had a chance to look at paint chips, as she wants to repaint her condo, and I had all the Benjamin Moore paint colors. Brenda was able to come home a bit early so I stopped at Brett and Roxanne and picked up Aidan, Regan and Olivia. They did not have school on Friday, so could come overnight. We have not had them over for quite some time. Friday we went to BC again so the kids could play with Emma and also gave Brenda an opportunity to run a couple of errands. After lunch I asked them if they wanted to help Grandma, and they were game, so I moved some of the living room furniture and they tore off all of the wallpaper in the room. Then the more tedious work began, when the paper on the wall had to be sprayed with water and the bottom layer of paper had to be scraped off. They did such a good job, and worked at it for 2 hours. There still is some left to do, but they helped me out a lot. Brett and Roxanne were able to come for supper after work, and we had a chance to catch up with them. Brett also helped Everett haul all of the furniture out of the living room in to the garage, so we can begin the work in there. Brett and Roxanne are also waiting for their builder to start their remodeling project in their kitchen, in a couple of weeks. We all will be living in a mess!!

Well, it is bedtime, and we get a day of rest tomorrow. PTL!

Monday, October 8, 2007

Updated photos

Here are some recent photos of our construction project.





Saturday, October 6, 2007

Saturday's work

Today we try and bring things back to pleasant living as much as is possible. I think most of the mechanical work is finished down the basement, but about the time I say that, someone comes and finds more to do. I have most of the laundry caught up for today, and am hanging up most everything w/o ironing. It will have to do!!

Everett is up in the bedroom we are sleeping in, and hanging the door that will allow us to get to the new area and our storage. The room will look very different w/o the windows that were in that spot, but it will be so great to have the room for storage.

Cousin Don Vanden Bos stopped in a bit ago to take his dogs for a walk, and ended up coming at just the right time to help Everett carry the door upstairs. We make the most of everyone that walks in the door lately. So beware when you stop in, we may put you to work.

I expected the drywall to be sanded on Friday, but the mud was not dry so they will do that on Monday. I will be happy to have that finished, so the painters can be here on Tuesday and put on the primer.

I have the family room couch totally covered with bedding for the new rooms; trying to decide what to keep and what to return. I will be glad to have that all finished so I can finalize the paint colors.

It is time to wrap up some of the stuff around here, so we can walk away from it for a couple of hours this evening.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

We're Dusty

It is happening. Everything we touch has a coat of white on it, but it is OK because we are making progress. The taping and mudding are finished and the sanding should be finished tomorrow. The painter is coming Tuesday of next week, as far as we know, and they will do the priming.

I took care of Emma today, and that was a good time to relax a little. She is a joy, and is saying so many words now. She was so excited when she saw some headbands in the bathroom and was telling me about Olivia's hair. I am thinking she was telling me that Olivia wears headbands in her hair too. What fun.

Tomorrow I get to pick up Aidan at school as Roxanne will be picking up the girls and going to a shower in Dearborn. It will be good to see him again. It has been a while since we have seen him, and Olivia and Regan too. I do not like to be so busy that there is not enough time for the important little people. They are so precious and grow up so quickly.

I talked with my Mom last night and she finally got the jacket for the outfit she plans to wear to Dwight's wedding. That was quite a relief as it was quite a hassle with JC Penney's. They had the jacket and the charge had been taken off of my credit card, but they had not delivered the jacket. About the time I reminded them there was something wrong with that picture, they quickly found the jacket that they said they did not have, and even had my Mom's address that they had never heard of. Wow, amazing!! We have the reservations for a motel in Pella, and now Mom just have to confirm that she does have a ride.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Post Vacation

Life is back to normal, at least as normal as it gets when your house is torn apart, and getting both better and worse every day. The last two days has been like sitting in a dentist office continually with the drill grinding in your teeth. The drywall guys are here and what ever tool they use sounds like that drill. Thankfully I am not terribly sensitive to noise, like some friends I know, or I would be jumping out of my skin. They are making great progress, but the part I am dreading the most is the sanding. We will be meeting with the painter on Thursday morning, so that means I have to get those colors picked out soon.

I have the guest bedroom comforter picked out, and possibly the master bedroom spread too. I am not the type to change every few years so I know whatever I pick, I will live with for some time!!

Tomorrow is Coffee Break and it is my turn to lead, so I should go over my lesson once more. We have a dinner for the Ada Christian School Foundation, this evening, at the Amway Ambassador Room, so there will be no time then.

This Friday I will be going to a mini conference for Coffee Break in Holland. I do not know how many of the teachers and leaders will be going, but I am sure it will be a day of blessing.

The last two mornings we woke up to falling rain; what a beautiful sound. I checked the rain gauge awhile ago and we had a 1/2". We did need it.

The bird feeders are filled, the laundry is caught up, I ran lots of errands this morning, and I do not have to fix dinner this evening, and cleaning around here is a hopeless situation right now, so maybe I can kick back for a few minutes!!